The women’s volleyball team split the weekend after going head-to-head with Ivy League rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. The Bears (6-9, 1-2 Ivy) fell to the Big Green in five sets Friday, letting the 3-2 loss slip away from them. But the team recovered Saturday and swept the Crimson in three sets.
Bruno suffered a tough defeat in Hanover despite 16 kills from Maddie Lord ’15 — a career high. After losing the first set, Brown took the next two sets, 25-23 and 25-20. Maryl Vanden Bos ’15 kept the pace with 24 assists, while Sarah Lucenti ’17 contributed 23.
Lucenti said a “few mistakes in the last game” did the team in. The Bears jumped to a 16-10 lead halfway through the fourth game, but Dartmouth (11-3, 2-1) responded, tying it at 18. The Big Green continued to build off its momentum, finishing Bruno off with a 26-24 win in overtime. Dartmouth ended the match with a 15-12 win in the fifth.
“The most important thing is that we rebounded,” Lucenti said. Bruno went into Saturday’s match fired up from this tight loss. “We knew we could beat them,” Lucenti said. Lucenti set the tone of the first game, serving and securing the first six points of the set. Harvard attempted to stay in it, but Brown captured the last six points of the game for a 25-15 win.
The Crimson (8-4, 1-2) rallied the next two games, but Brown closed them both out in extra points. They battled for a 26-24 win in the second and a 27-25 win in the third. Taylor Bantle ’15 had four blocks for the win. Payton Smith ’17 and McKenna Webster ’16 pushed Brown’s aggressive play, contributing nine and 10 kills, respectively.
“Every single point we were fighting,” Lucenti said.
The team will continue its Ivy League play, taking on Princeton (8-5, 3-0) and Penn (4-10, 1-2) over the long weekend.
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