Dartmouth Stymied by Defending Ivy League Champion Yale

Saturday, October 14

New Haven, Conn. / Lee Ampitheater

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

6-10,3-4Ivy League

Yale

12-3,7-0Ivy League

Dartmouth

Yale

Ellie Blain ’24

Photo by: Kyle Relf

Dartmouth Stymied by Defending Ivy League Champion Yale

10/14/2023 7:34:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

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The Big Green put together a strong third set, but were on the wrong side of a 3-0 decision

By: Kyle Relf

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Squaring off with Yale for the first time since the 2022 Ivy League Tournament, which the Bulldogs ended up winning on their homecourt, the Dartmouth volleyball team came up short in a 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-21) loss on Saturday evening at John J. Lee Amphitheater.

The Big Green dropped to 6-10 on the season and now stand at 3-4 in the Ivy League. Yale improved 12-3 and remained unbeaten in the Ancient Eight with its seventh conference win.

Points were hard to come by against the Bulldogs, who sport the third longest home winning streak in all of Division I. Yale put together a .345 hitting percentage while Dartmouth registered a .139 clip despite a strong .314 showing in the third set. Ellie Blain and Kauany Gutz led the Big Green with seven kills apiece. Yale's Mila Yarich put down a match-high nine kills on just 18 attempts (.444).

A 6-0 run in the third set, which included multiple Molly Power blocks, was the highlight of Dartmouth's evening, and gave the Big Green a 14-13 edge as they threatened to take a game from the defending champions. Yale responded to take six of the next seven points to comfortably reclaim the lead and eventually close its eighth straight win with Bonnie Bostic's kill.

A 10-10 stalemate midway through the opening set signaled a strong start for Dartmouth, already with kills from five different hitters. From that point, the Bulldogs claimed 11 of the next 13 points and raced to an insurmountable 21-12 advantage.

Yale never trailed in the second set, putting balls down at a .381 clip. The Big Green managed a 7-7 deadlock, but quickly found themselves facing a 17-9 deficit. Yarich had three kills on just four swings in Yale's finest offensive showing of the evening.

Like Friday night's match against Brown, Dartmouth found its footing in the third set only to succumb to a strong finish from the host and find itself on the wrong side of a three-setter. Blain recorded five of her seven kills in the third and hit .400, but it wasn't enough to hold off Yale, whose 4-0 run after a 15-15 tie was a backbreaker.

Dartmouth's three-match road stretch reaches its final stop on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Harvard. The match begins at 5 p.m. and fans can watch live on ESPN+ and follow live stats through DartmouthSports.com. The Big Green are back at Leede Arena to host Columbia and Cornell during the final weekend of October.