WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University volleyball team kicked off its 2026 Invitational today with a 3-1 win over WPI. The teams split the first two sets before the Judges won the final two, taking the match, 25-21, 16-25, 25-20, 25-21.
TEAM RECORDS
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The first set saw WPI leading 10-9 when the Judges went on a 4-0 run to take the lead for good.
- First-year setter Camila Valenzuela (Winter Park, Fla. / Bishop Moore Catholic) had two service aces to cap the run, giving Brandeis a 13-10 lead.
- Junior Kennedy Lilly (Atlanta, Ga. / Eagle's Landing Christian Acad.) closed another 4-0 run with a kill that made it 18-12 and the Judges hung on for the 25-21 first-set win.
- The second set was tight, tied at 16-16, but the visitors scored the final nine points to even the match.
- The third set saw the teams stay close in the early going with 10 ties and four lead changes.
- Once again, the decisive run came with WPI leading, 10-9, as the Judges scored five of the set's next six points to go ahead, 14-11, with Lilly providing two kills and a block in the stretch.
- Brandeis would lead by as many as six points in the third before a late WPI run, but the Judges took it, 25-20.
- The fourth set was back-and-forth with six more ties and three lead changes. The stanza was tied at 17-all when a 5-1 Brandeis run put them ahead, 22-18, thanks to a pair of kills by first-year Kennedy Hilson (Decatur, Ga. / Decatur), as the Judges closed out the match, 25-21, on an Engineer service error.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Three Judges finished in double figures in kills, with junior Madison Haft-Abromovitch (Stratford, Conn./Rye Country Day School) leading all players with 18 kills. Lilly and first-year Emmory Casto (Castle Rock, Colo. / Rock Canyon) had 11 kills each.
- Lilly made just two errors in 22 attempts for a team-best .409 hitting percentage.
- Valenzuela paced the offense with 38 assists and five service aces, both career-highs.
- Senior Ava Ferrigno (Boca Raton, Fla. / Boca Raton Community) had a team-high 15 digs, while junior Taylor Lewis (Haverhill, Mass. / Haverhill) had 10.
- Lilly and Hilson each had two blocks.
UP NEXT
- The Judges will play Stevens tomorrow at 11 a.m. and Williams at 3 p.m.
