Dartmouth Returns to Leede to Host Cornell and Columbia

Friday, Oct. 14: Dartmouth (6-9, 0-5) vs. Cornell (6-8, 1-4)
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Leede Arena
Last Meeting: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015 - W, 3-0
Live Stats
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Saturday, Oct. 15: Dartmouth vs. Columbia (9-6, 4-1)*
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Leede Arena
Last Meeting: Friday, Nov. 6, 2015 - W, 3-1
Live Stats
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THIS WEEKEND
Dartmouth volleyball will play at home for the first time in three weeks, facing Cornell at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14 and Columbia at 5 p.m. the following day.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green ended their second consecutive weekend of road matches by falling to Yale, 3-0 (17-25, 9-25, 20-25) and Brown, 3-1 (11-25, 19-25, 25-21, 16-25).

Against the Bulldogs, the first part of the first set was evenly matched; although Yale got the first point, a kill by Kaira Lujan put Dartmouth on the board. The Bulldogs pulled three points ahead, but the Big Green picked up three of their own to make it a 4-4 set. Yale went on a 9-1 run (13-5), but Dartmouth managed to get within four points (13-9). Yale took control of the remainder of the set, shutting it down not long after.

Yale won the first three points of the second set, but Dartmouth took four of the next five points off kills by Sara Lindquist and Molly Kornfeind and an error on the other side of the net (4-4). From there, however, Yale took the lead and ran with it, scoring the next 13 points and soon ending it.

Dartmouth returned to the court for the third set as a different team, winning the first point from an Emily Astarita kill. The teams traded points until Yale won a handful in a row to make it 10-6. That lead was short-lived, though, as the Big Green took the next four points to tie the score at 10-all. There were two more ties before the home team started to pull away (19-15). The Bulldogs won the next six of seven points – committing one error during that time – to end the match.

In the match against the Bears the next day, Brown jumped out to an early lead by taking the first set with a score of 25-11, winning the first five points until Dartmouth got on the board following an error by the home team. The Bears maintained the upper hand, going on multi-point runs to secure the victory.

An ace by Cox gave the first point of the second to the Big Green and soon, the visitors had a 3-1 lead. Three straight Brown points gave the lead back to the home team, but only briefly; the next five points went to Dartmouth, making it 9-5 in the Green's favor. The Bears turned things around soon after, however, going on a 10-3 run to pull ahead (15-12). After trading points, Brown neared another victory with five in a row, and after four more Dartmouth points, the Bears shut the set down before the Big Green could get any closer.

Dartmouth capitalized on Brown errors in the early stages of the third set to lead, 5-3. The teams went back and forth and, following a Cox kill, Dartmouth had a 9-6 advantage. Brown started to close the gap, tying the score (18-18), but two Brown errors and a kill by Lujan put the Big Green back ahead, 21-18. Brown started to catch up, but not before two errors by the Bears and a Kott kill gave Dartmouth its first win of the night.

Brown started the fourth set off with a 7-2 advantage, but Dartmouth soon cut that lead to three to make it 9-6. The Bears managed to extend their lead the longer the set went on and soon had a 20-12 edge. The Big Green got four more points off kills by Lujan and Abby Kott and two errors by the Bears while holding the opponent at match point, but a Dartmouth error gave the win to Brown (25-16).

SCOUTING CORNELL
The Big Red enter the weekend with an overall record of 6-8 and are 1-5 in Ivy League play following losses to Columbia, Brown, Yale and Princeton and a 3-2 victory over Penn last Friday. Prior to that win over the Quakers, Cornell had lost four matches in a row.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE BIG RED
Dartmouth went 2-0 against Cornell in 2015, defeating the Big Red by a score of 3-1 in October and 3-0 less than a month later. On Nov. 7 (Senior Night), the Big Green won its second straight match to remain second in the conference. Astarita had a double-double (14 kills, 11 digs), while Lujan hit .500 and Kayden Cook had 39 assists and two of the team's five aces.

SCOUTING COLUMBIA
The Lions are currently tied for second in the conference with a record of 4-1. The only Ivy match Columbia has lost so far was to Princeton (the current leader with a perfect 5-0 mark) on Friday.

LAST TIME VS. THE LIONS
Dartmouth went undefeated against Columbia last season, going 3-2 during the first meeting and 3-1 later on in the campaign. On Nov. 6, 2015, Paige Caridi earned her 1,000th career dig, while Astarita had a double-double (15 kills, 16 digs) and Stacey Benton had 25 assists. Jordan Cornwell ended the match with 18 digs.

RECORD ALERT
Astarita enters Friday's match with 998 career kills and needs just two more to become the sixth player in Dartmouth volleyball history to reach the 1,000 mark.

IN THE CONFERENCE
Dartmouth is doing well among its Ancient Eight opponents:
Opponent hitting percentage – 2nd (.182)
Blocks – 3rd (166, 2.02)
Service Aces – 1st (77)
Service Aces/Set – 3rd (1.48)
Digs (757, 14.56)

Individually, the Big Green have a handful of players near the top in a number of categories:
Kills – Astarita, 5th (148, 2.85)
Service Aces – Cox, T4th (19)
Services Aces/Set – Cox, 5th (0.37)
Total Blocks – Lujan, 1st (53.0)
Blocks/Set – Lujan, 2nd (1.06)

FOLLOW ALONG
Live stats will be available for both matches on DartmouthSports.com. Those who subscribe to the Ivy League Digital Network (ILDN) can also watch the matches online.

NEXT UP FOR THE BIG GREEN
Dartmouth will play its final non-conference game of 2016 on Wednesday, Oct. 19, when it hosts Bryant at 7 p.m.

Schedules