Big Green Drop First Match of Road Invite to Villanova

Friday, August 31

Annapolis, Md.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

0-1

Villanova

4-0

Dartmouth

Villanova

Junior Corinne Cox

Photo by: Risley Sports Photography

Big Green Drop First Match of Road Invite to Villanova

8/31/2018 4:24:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Charlotte Brackett

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Dartmouth volleyball dropped its first match of the season to Villanova, 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-18) on day one of Navy's Kristen Dickmann Invitational on Friday.

Freshman Nicole Liddle led the team with seven kills, while classmate Francesca Meldrum was right behind with six. Junior Corinne Cox had a team-leading 16 assists, while senior Zoe Leonard was first among the Big Green with nine digs.

"I thought we had some moments when we played solid volleyball, but overall, this tournament is a tough first weekend with four new corners on the floor," head coach Gilad Doron said. "Villanova served and passed better than us today, something we will have to get better at as the season progresses. I am looking forward to seeing how we react tomorrow against Navy."

Dartmouth got off to a good start in the first set, taking a 3-0 lead following two aces by Cox and a kill by Meldrum, but a 5-1 run on the other side of the net put Villanova up by one (5-4). Four ties later, the Wildcats pulled away to make it an 18-8 set. Dartmouth started to work its way back, outscoring Villanova, 6-3, thanks to a handful of Wildcat errors and kills by Liddle and fellow freshman Bella Hedley (21-14). The Green continued to fight, but Villanova shut the set down (25-16).

Another strong start put Dartmouth ahead, 6-3, in set two after kills by Liddle, Cox, junior Abby Kott and freshman Emma Moffet, but the Wildcats came back to take the lead (14-8). The Big Green began to turn things around to win five of the next six points following kills by Hedley, Liddle and Meldrum to get within two (15-13), while one last run by Villanova made it a 2-0 match (25-16).

The Wildcats took control of the third set from the beginning and soon had a 21-11 advantage. After a timeout, the Big Green came out stronger to win seven of the final 11 points and eventually pulled within five points after some kills by Meldrum and sophomore Olympia Nagel-Caland (23-18). Two Villanova points in a row ended the match.

Dartmouth will return to the court on Saturday to take on Navy (10 a.m.) and Alabama (5 p.m.).