Coming off a pair of hard-fought games against middling Ivy League opponents Princeton and Penn, the women’s volleyball team began the second half of the Ivy season with a matchup against a dominant Yale squad. After falling to the Bulldogs 3-1 earlier in the season, Bruno (10-10, 4-4 Ivy) emerged victorious Friday evening, beating its guest by the same 3-1 margin at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The Bears boasted an impressive performance all around, as the squad took the first, third and fourth sets of the contest from the five-time defending Ivy League champions. The win over Yale (10-7, 5-3) marked Bruno’s first since Nov. 16, 2005.
Looking to repeat its performance earlier in the season, Yale came out strong in the first set of the match and claimed an early 7-2 lead. Not to be bested, the Bears rallied off several kills to get the team back into the game.
The two teams see-sawed until the end of the opening frame. While the Bears managed to take a 24-23 advantage on a kill from Shannon Frost ’16, the Bulldogs responded with a kill of their own to even out the set. In a display of unrelenting play, Casey Tierney ’18 and Courtney Palm ’19 combined for a block on the Bulldogs’ next swing. Frost brought an end to the first set with another kill.
Yale again took an early lead in the match’s second stanza, but this time the squad managed to stave off any comeback attempts from the Bears.
The second set was the last time during the contest that Yale would get anywhere close to set point. The Bears delivered a commanding response in the third set. Bruno struck early in the stanza, taking a 12-4 lead. The Bulldogs attempted to crawl their way back into the game, but Bruno rattled off seven of the set’s last eight points to claim the 25-14 win.
The fourth and final set of the contest proceeded in a similar manner as the third. Bruno handily dealt with Yale to claim the 25-16 set and the match.
Up next, the Bears will embark on a four-game stretch on the road and face off against conference foes Columbia and Cornell this weekend.
