Dartmouth Concludes Tournament Play at WVU Invitational

West Virginia Invitational

Friday, Sept. 16
Dartmouth (6-1) vs. Akron (3-6)
4:30 p.m.
Live Stats

Saturday, Sept. 17
Dartmouth vs. Winthrop (6-5)*
10 a.m.
Live Stats

Dartmouth vs. WVU (5-5)*
7 p.m.
Live Stats
Video

THIS WEEKEND
Even though it may feel as if tournament play just began, this weekend will conclude that part of the season for the Dartmouth volleyball team. The Big Green will take part in the West Virginia Invitational, facing Akron, Winthrop and the host Mountaineers over the course of two days. Dartmouth enters its last multi-day event with an impressive 6-1 mark.

LAST TIME OUT
The Green hosted the Dartmouth Invitational this past weekend, playing four matches during the two-day event against Army (L, 3-0), Central Connecticut State (W, 3-2), Niagara (W, 3-0) and Hartford (W, 3-0) and finishing in second place behind Army with its 4-0 record. Seniors Emily Astarita and Julia Lau were named to the All-Tournament Team for their performances throughout the invite. Freshman Abby Kott also contributed to Dartmouth's success, ending up with 10 digs against both Niagara and Hartford.

IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
In addition to being named All-Tournament, Astarita was tabbed as the Ivy League Player of the Week, the Big Green's first of the 2016 season. In four matches, she had 40 kills, 123 total attacks, three aces, 30 digs, one solo block, 10 block assists and had a total of 49 points. In back-to-back matches against CCSU and Niagara, she had double-doubles: 16 kills and 10 digs against CCSU, and 12 kills and 10 digs against Niagara.

SCOUTING AKRON
The Zips will be competing in their fourth invite, entering the weekend with a record of 3-6. They have gone 1-2 at each of their three tournaments so far this season, picking up wins over Western Illinois (3-2), Delaware State (3-0) and Canisius (3-0).

SCOUTING WINTHROP
Also on their fourth tournament, the Eagles enter the WVU Invitational with a 6-5 mark. They went 1-2 at both the UNCW Tournament and the Carolina Challenge and won a stand-alone match against Georgia Southern (3-2) before dropping just one match at the UMBC Tournament a few days later. Most recently, Winthrop played a single match against Western Carolina, walking away with a 3-0 win.

SCOUTING WVU
The host has a record of 5-5 as it enters its fourth invitational of the season. WVU went 1-2 at the Penn State Classic, and 2-1 at both the Capital Classic and the Cal Tournament. Earlier this week, the Mountaineers played a single match at Pacific, falling by a score of 3-1.

DORON AND COMPANY
The Big Green has a whole new look behind the bench this season. Gilad Doron is in his first year at the helm of the program after coaching at the University of San Francisco for nine years. Joining him in their first year as assistant coaches are Eyal Zimet and Tara Hittle.

CAPTAINS
The 21-player squad – made up of 16 returnees and five rookies – is led by Astarita and Lujan, who are both entering their final season on the court. Last year, Astarita started every match, had a career-high and conference-leading 350 kills and a .250 hitting percentage. She was named to the All-Ivy League First Team as well. Lujan, a fifth year senior, was third on the team with a career-high 186 kills and produced 2.21 kills per set in 2015. She was second among the Big Green with a .313 hitting percentage and hit over .500 five times during the season. She was also named First Team All-Ivy and this is the second year in a row that she is serving as captain.

FRESH FACES
Making their collegiate debut this fall are Allie Carey, Corinne Cox, Abby Kott, Maddy Schoenberger and Carly Tower. There is a nice mixture of positions as two are middle blockers (Kott, Tower), one is a setter (Cox), one is an outsider hitter (Carey) and the last one is a defensive specialist (Schoenberger).

IN THE CONFERENCE
Even though conference play has not yet begun, Dartmouth is doing well among its Ancient Eight opponents:
Hitting percentage – 4th (.198)
Opponent hitting percentage – 1st (.148)
Assists – 4th (229)
Kills – 4th (247)
Blocks – 3rd (41.0)
Service Aces/Set – 1st (2.00)
Digs – 5th (278)

Individually, the Big Green have a number of players near the top in a number of categories:
Kills – Astarita, 1st (71)
Kills/Set – Astarita, 2nd (3.61)
Blocks/Set – Lujan, 3rd (1.10)
Blocks/Set – Kott, 4th (1.05)

CAN'T BE THERE?
Live stats and video for Dartmouth's match vs. WVU can be found on DartmouthSports.com. For updates on the Big Green, go to the team's new official Twitter handle: @DartmouthVBall.

NEXT UP FOR DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth will open Ivy League play next Friday, Sept. 23, with a single home match against Harvard at 7 p.m.

* Records at beginning of tournament

Schedules