WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University volleyball team dropped its final two matches in University Athletic Association play today at Washington University. The Judges lost to #5 Carnegie Mellon, 3-0 (27-25, 25-15, 25-22), in the opener, and to the University of Rochester in their final conference match, 3-2 (24-26, 22-25, 25-15, 27-25, 15-11). Brandeis closes out its UAA regular season at 1-6 in the league and will earn the seventh seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
TEAM RECORDS
- Brandeis, 10-14, 1-6 UAA.
- Carnegie Mellon, 21-3, 4-2 UAA.
- Rochester, 10-13, 1-6 UAA.
HOW IT HAPPENED VS #5 CARNEGIE MELLON (27-25, 25-15, 25-22)
- The Judges were competitive with the Tartans in the first and third sets, which both featured 12 ties and totaled eight lead changes between them.
- The first set saw the Judges with the largest lead of four points, at 18-14 and again at 20-16, the latter coming on a kill by first-year Emmory Casto (Castle Rock, Colo./Rock Canyon).
- CMU took advantage of a Brandeis service error to run off four straight points, tying things up at 20.
- The teams traded the next seven points, giving Brandeis the first set point at 24-23.
- Carnegie Mellon responded with two in a row before first-year Kennedy Hilson (Decatur, Ga./Decatur) had a solo block to even things at 25-all.
- Another service error gave the lead back to CMU, and a Brandeis attack error gave them the set, 27-25.
- The Tartans jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the second set, rolling to a 25-15 win.
- The third set again saw neither team go ahead by more than three points, twice achieved by CMU, who were still ahead at 14-13.
- Brandeis rebounded with a 5-2 run, with two kills by Casto and one from Hilson that gave the Judges an 18-16 edge.
- Carnegie Mellon answered with a 5-1 run of their own to go back ahead, 21-19, but junior Kennedy Lilly (Atlanta, Ga./Eagle's Landing Christian Academy) had two kills and a block on the next three points to give Brandeis a 22-21 lead.
- A service error gave the ball back to the Tartans, and the scored three more in a row to take the 25-22 win.
- Casto led the Judges with 11 kills, matching her career-high, while Lilly had 10 kills with just two errors in 15 attempts for a .533 hitting percentage.
- Junior Alexa Ho (Queens, N.Y./Frances Lewis) had 19 assists to lead all players, and first-year Camila Valenzuela (Winter Park, Fla./Bishop Moore Catholic) had 14, while junior Taylor Lewis (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) had a match-high 13 digs.
- Brandeis had a 41-32 advantage in kills, but CMU had an 8-3 edge in service aces, 10-4 in blocks and the Tartans made just attack 11 errors compared to 26 for Brandeis.
HOW IT HAPPENED VS ROCHESTER (24-26, 22-25, 25-15, 25-27, 11-15)
- The Judges' attack was successful through the first two sets, when they had 30 kills, 15 errors and 73 attacks for a .205 hitting percentage. In the final three sets, however, they managed just 18 kills and had 23 errors in 96 attempts.
- Rochester, meanwhile, had 19 kills and 14 errors in 70 attempts over those first two sets and improved their totals to 33 kills, 16 errors in 97 attacks in the final three.
- In a match that featured 26 ties and eight lead changes, the Judges came from 16-9 and 23-19 down in the first set, closing on a 7-1 run to take it, 26-24.
- Brandeis had a 9-0 run in the second set, turning a 16-11 deficit into a 20-16 lead on the serve of sophomore Evelyn Burke (Lake George, N.Y./Lake George).
- UR battled back to tie things at 20-all, but Brandeis scored five of the last seven points to take it, 25-22.
- Rochester bounced back and outscored Brandeis 15-5 after the scored was tied at 10 to win the third set, 25-15.
- Brandeis led by four points twice in the fourth set, the latest at 15-11.
- Rochester answered with 10 of the next 14 points, going ahead, 21-19.
- The Judges scored two more in a row, and then saw their first match point at 24-23 after a pair of Yellowjacket errors on Casto's serve.
- UR fended off the first match point, then had a set point of their own at 25-24.
- A Hilson kill kept Brandeis alive, but Rochester scored the next two points to take it 27-25.
- The Yellowjackets opened the fifth set on a 5-1 run, and even though Brandeis cut the deficit to 8-7, the Judges were unable to take the lead at any point en route to a 15-11 come-from-behind win for UR.
- Junior Madison Haft-Abromovitch (Stratford, Conn./Rye Country Day School) had a team-high 16 kills in the match, while Hilson had seven.
- Valenzuela had 20 assists and 13 digs while Ho had 17 assists and 10 digs.
- Senior Olivia Nirode (Keller, Texas/Keller) had 18 digs to lead the defense, one of four Brandeis players in double figures. Burke was the final Brandeis player, with 11 digs.
UP NEXT
- The Judges return to action on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. against Wellesley College in their final home match of the season.
