Volleyball Defeats Sacred Heart To Close Opening Weekend

Sunday, September 7

Fairfield, Conn.

3:45 PM

Dartmouth College

2-1,0-0Ivy League

Sacred Heart

1-5,0-0MAAC

Dartmouth

Sacred Heart

Volleyball Defeats Sacred Heart To Close Opening Weekend

9/7/2025 7:20:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Dan Richeal

FAIRFIELD, Conn.—The Dartmouth volleyball team notched its second straight win to close out the Sacred Heart Invitational on Sunday. The Big Green defeated Sacred Heart in four sets to improve to 2-1 on the season.

Set One (W, 25-15)

The first set saw just one lead change and one tie as Sacred Heart took an early 3-1 lead, but the Big Green went on a 9-0 run to take a commanding 10-3 lead through 13 points. The Pioneers cut the lead to as small as six but could not get any closer. Dartmouth closed the set on a 5-2 run to take the opening set 25-15.

Dartmouth spread the points around once again on Sunday with five players tallying a kill in the opening set. Kauany Gutz led the way with four kills while Maddie LaFata had three kills. The Big Green also got kills from Elle McCreery, Molly Power, and Munachiso Mmuo. Dartmouth rejected the Pioneers five times with blocks with McCreery tallying a solo block and the duo of Kutz and Power teaming up for four blocks. Sophia Gagnepain led Dartmouth with six assists while Julia York notched three assists on five attempts. Dartmouth had a hitting percentage of .400 to open the match.

Set Two (L, 25-19)

Sacred Heart took a 1-0 lead to open the set and never trailed during the set. The Big Green tied the set on four different occasions but never broke the tie. The set was tied at one, two, four, and seven. Following the set being tied at seven, the Pioneers took a 13-8 lead. The Big Green cut the lead to three on multiple occasions but could not take the lead from Sacred Heart as the Pioneers evened the match with a 25-19 second set win.

Just like the first set, Dartmouth had five different players tally a kill. LaFata was credited with four kills to lead Dartmouth while Gutz had three in the set. Gagnepain had a set high seven digs in the set which accounted for half of the teams in the set. York tallied the lone Dartmouth ace in the set while Power and Riley Imamura teamed up for a block in the set.

Set Three (W, 26-24)

The third set was the closest and most back and forth set of the match. The set featured four lead changes and 16 tied scores as both team battled for the crucial second set. The largest lead of the set was three as the Big Green had multiple three point leads late in the set. The final tie of the set was at 24 until Sacred Heart committed a service error to make it 25-24 Dartmouth. Zori Brown had the final point of the set as she notched a kill to win the set.

Gutz once again led the way in the kill department for the Big Green as she had five kills in the set. Brown tallied four kills while Mmuo, Power, and McCreery all had two kills in the set. Gagnepain and York combined for 14 assists with Gagnepain having a team high nine assists. LaFata and McCreery combined for a block in the set. Gutz had six digs in the set while EllaMae Fitzgerald had four digs.

Set Four (W, 25-21)

The fourth set was another back and forth set with eight tie scores and four lead changes. The teams traded points through the first 16 points as the teams were tied at eight following a Sacred Heart timeout. After 30 points, Sacred Heart held a 16-14 lead which led to a Dartmouth timeout. Sacred Heart took a 19-16 lead but the Big Green went on a 4-0 run to take a 20-19 lead. After a Dartmouth service error tied the game at 20 the Big Green took five of the next six points to close the match.

Gutz's big day continued in the fourth set as the senior had a set high seven kills as Dartmouth hit .406 in the set. LaFata had four kills on six attacks while Brown had three kills. Gagnepain tallied two aces in the set while adding four digs. Fitzgerald had seven digs which led all players in the set. The Big Green had three blocks in the set with Imamura and McCreery each having two block assists, Brown and Emma Symon each had a block assist.

The Big Green tallied 50 assists in the match, Gagnepain tallied 29 of the 50 assists for a career high while York had 10 in her second career match. Gutz notched her first double-double of the season with 19 kills and 10 digs against Sacred Heart. For the second straight match the Big Green tallied 10 blocks.

Dartmouth travels to Boston next weekend for three matches at Boston College. The Big Green open the tournament against Sacramento State on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 7 PM. Dartmouth then takes on UAlbany on Friday, Sept. 12. Dartmouth and Boston College square off in the weekend finale on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 5 PM.