St. Louis, Mo. – The No. 7 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team picked up two more wins on Saturday, defeating Earlham and Grinnell. The Bears finished 3-0 this weekend at their own Red and Green Invite.
 
Match 1: WashU 3, Earlham 1 (25-20, 25-14, 23-25, 25-19)
Earlham went up early with a 4-2 lead following a 3-0 run but the Bears put together their own 3-0 run behind back-to-back kills from Michaela Bach and Lily Steinbach.
 
WashU took its biggest lead thus far with three-straight points to go up 10-7 and really opened things up a few minutes later with a 7-0 run led by a kill from Bach and an ace from Lane Bohrer.
 
The Quakers added four-straight points to cut the Bears lead to 19-15,
 
Two kills from Steinbach gave WashU a 23-17 advantage but Earlham scored three-straight points including two aces to pull within three points again, 23-20.
 
WashU held on to the lead and closed things out with the final two points of the set.
 
The Bears came out to go on a 5-1 run to open the second set behind three kills from Bach and two from Zoe Foster. Foster then added another kill and Amanda Gild recorded an ace for a 7-2 WashU lead.
 
Earlham went on a 4-1 run to come within two points, 9-7, before the Bears scored three in a row to go up 12-7. Three more points pushed the score to 15-8.
 
Kills from Foster and Lucy Davis and an ace from Amanda Gild put WashU up by double digits, 20-10. The Quakers cut it down to 23-14 but the Bears scored the final two points of the set to go up 2-0 in the match.
 
WashU opened up the third set with a 3-0 run behind two kills from Bach and an ace from Bohrer. The Bears went up 6-2 before Earlham scored four-straight to tie things up at six points apiece.
 
The Bears scored four-straight including two kills from Bohrer to take an 11-7 lead but the Quakers scored three in a row to pull within one. WashU went on a 5-0 run led by two kills from Bach to take a 18-11 edge.
 
Ultimately, the Quakers tied things up 23-23 before scoring the final two points to steal the set 25-23.
 
The fourth set proved to be evenly paced, as it was tied up nine different times.
 
The Bears ultimately broke the tie for the final time, tying it up at 16 on a kill from Steinbach and extended it to 18-16. Another 3-0 run for WashU which included kills from Sam Buckley, Bohrer and Bach.
 
WashU scored four of the last five points, including two kills from Foster, to win the set and claim the match.
 
Bach finished with a season-high 23 kills to go with 10 digs while Bohrer recorded 12 kills with 19 digs. Foster had 11 kills on the day. Taryn Gurbach had a team-high 20 digs.
 
Match 2: WashU 3, Grinnell 1 (25-8, 25-17, 22-25, 25-17)
WashU opened the first set against Grinnell with an 8-1 run. Bach and Davis each had a pair of kills during the run, Bohrer added an ace. Bach and Foster combined for a block while Foster also notched a solo block.
 
Two kills from Steinbach and one from Davis extended the Bears' lead to 12-3. Following two Pioneers' points, WashU added another three in a row for a 15-5 advantage.
 
The Bears continued to dominate with another 4-0 run to extend things to 19-6 behind two kills from Bohrer.
 
Two aces from Buckley and a kill from Tori Taylor gave WashU a 24-7 lead and another kill from Taylor ended the set with a Bears' win.
 
WashU started the set second with a 3-1 run before the Pioneers scored four-straight to go up 5-3, which included two aces from Jenna Keller.
 
Kills from Bach and Steinbach and a Grinnell attacking error put WashU on top again, 7-6. A service error on the Bears tied things up at seven apiece but WashU went on to score six-straight points including three straight kills from Bohrer.
 
Bohrer continued to dominate offensively with three more kills to extend the Bears' lead to 24-16 and a Grinnell attack error ended the set.
 
Things switched around in the third set as Grinnell came out to take a 8-1 lead. The Bears cut it in half and ultimately tied things at nine apiece following five-straight points, including three kills from McKenzie Washington.
 
The teams exchanged points but Grinnell took the lead for the final time of the set with a 4-0 run, going up 20-17. The Bears brought it within two points but a kill from Emmy Nyquist sealed the deal and sent the match into a fourth set.
 
The Pioneers opened the fourth set with two points and WashU quickly tied things up 2-2.
 
The set was tied up four more times until WashU went on a 7-0 run, led by Bach and Steinbach who each had two kills and combined for a block, going up 17-12.
 
Kills from Steinbach and Bohrer bumped the advantage to 24-16 and a Grinnell attacking error ended the set and the match.
 
Bohrer finished with a season-high 19 kills while Bach had 13 kills and Steinbach recorded 11.
 
WashU is now 25-3 on the season as it heads in the final three regular-season matches on the season, starting with a 7 p.m. home match on Wednesday against Westminster.