Volleyball
The volleyball team put last weekend’s winless opening San Diego tournament far in the rearview mirror with an impressive showing at the Brown Invitational in the Pizzitola Center this weekend. Bruno picked up victories over Central Connecticut State University and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell after falling in a tight match to Liberty University to open the tournament.
The 3-1 final score in the loss to Liberty did not reflect how close the Bears came to pulling out a win. Each squad picked up a definitive victory in the first two sets, with Bruno taking the first by a wide 25-16 margin and Liberty answering with 25-21 win. The Bears looked poised to gain the advantage after opening up a 24-21 lead in the third set, but five consecutive points went the way of the Flames, who used the momentum to take the fourth set and the match.
But the Bears did not let the disappointing loss spoil their weekend, and the squad dropped only one set the rest of the way. While CCSU managed to win the second set of its match with the Bears, Bruno didn’t allow the Blue Devils to gain more than 20 points in any of the other three sets.
In the last match of the tournament, UMass-Lowell was no contest for the streaking Bears. Behind a breakout 13-kill effort from Casey Tierney ’18, the team rolled to a 3-0 win.
Consistent top contributor Maddie Lord ’15 put her power on display for fans at the Pizzitola, spiking home 39 kills on the weekend, with 18 coming against Liberty alone.
Men’s water polo
It was a busy weekend for the men’s water polo team, which battled six games in its home pool at the Bruno Fall Classic. Bruno was coming off an undefeated first weekend but ran into some quality competition on its way to a 3-3 tournament.
Brown’s home opener paired the Bears against California Baptist University. The teams played evenly in the game’s first and final quarters, but the middle of the contest belonged to Bruno. The Bears outscored the Lancers 7-4 through the middle two quarters, and the margin was enough to lift the squad to a 14-11 win. A balanced scoring attack propelled the offense, featuring two players with three goals, two players with two goals and four players with one goal.
Two California schools broke Bruno’s four-game winning streak to start the year. Santa Clara University topped the home team with a strong fourth period en route to a 12-7 victory and the University of California at Irvine followed suit with an 18-6 trouncing.
The Bears tried to get back on track against Navy, battling the Midshipmen into overtime but eventually falling in a 10-9 heartbreaker. Henry Fox ’15 tallied a pair of goals in each of Saturday’s games to lead the offense.
The bleeding stopped on Sunday when Brown trampled Connecticut College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In each contest, the Bears jumped to early leads and never let the competition mount a comeback. Bruno doubled up Connecticut College 16-8 and outdid itself with a 17-8 victory over MIT.
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