Big Green Volleyball Drops Season Opener to TCU, 3-0

Friday, September 4

San Diego, Calif.

7:30 PM

Dartmouth College

0-1

TCU

4-0

TCU

Dartmouth

Big Green Volleyball Drops Season Opener to TCU, 3-0

9/4/2015 9:10:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The Dartmouth volleyball team kicked off the 2015 season on Friday with a 3-0 loss to TCU (25-15, 25-19, 25-15) in the first of three matches at the SDSU/USD Invitational at San Diego State's Aztec Court.

The Big Green are 0-1 on the year, while the Horned Frogs remain undefeated with a record of 4-0.

Senior Paige Caridi was first among the Big Green with nine kills, while classmate Kaira Lujan and junior Emily Astarita were close behind with eight each. Fellow junior Stacey Benton led both teams with 15 assists and freshman Zoe Leonard had the most digs for Dartmouth with nine.

"I was really proud of how the team came out to compete today," head coach Erin Lindsey said. "I asked them to focus on our serve and pass game and we did a really good job in serve receive. We still can serve tougher, but both Zoe Leonard and Sierra Lyle took us on some good runs.

"There were some very strong moments in the middle of the second set and beginning of the third where we were doing a good job running our offense and playing disciplined defense," Lindsey continued. "TCU had a big block that our hitters were not able to adjust to soon enough in the match, but our pin players started to move the ball around as the match went on."

Two Dartmouth errors allowed the opponent an early lead in the first set, but a kill by Astarita got the Green on the board. After getting within three (8-5) of TCU early in the match courtesy of a Lida Vandermeer kill, the Horned Frogs went on to shut the set down quickly off a kill and three errors by Dartmouth.

It was the Big Green that struck first in set two, earning the first point off another kill by Astarita, but six unanswered TCU kills put the other team up, 6-1. Trailing 21-10, Dartmouth went on a five-point run following two kills by Astarita and one apiece by Lujan, Caridi, and freshman Sierra Lyle to cut TCU's advantage to just six (21-15).

The Green fought hard to stay in attacking distance, getting within five of their rival, but two consecutive Horned Frog kills gave them the second set as well.

The third set started off incredibly close, with the teams tying three times before reaching the fourth point. From there, TCU capitalized on a pair of errors to take an 8-4 lead. That advantage did not last long, however, as back-to-back kills by Lujan and Caridi put Dartmouth within two (10-8). The Green remained close (16-14) until the Horned Frogs earned six points in a row, allowing just one more kill by Lujan before ending the set with a kill of their own.

"Moving forward, we will work to be more consistent within those positive runs," Lindsey said. "This will keep us closer and in contention at the end of the sets."

Saturday is a busy day for Dartmouth, who will face Pacific at 1:30 p.m. and No. 23 San Diego at 6 p.m.