Box Score St. Louis, Mo. – The Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team picked up a pair of wins over Berea and North Park on Friday evening in their Labor Day Invite. The Bears are now 3-0 to start the season.
 
WashU 3, Berea 1 (18-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-16)
Berea came out to win the first set 25-18 before the Bears bounced back to win three-straight and take the match.
 
The teams were even in the opening minutes of the set, with Berea taking an 8-6 lead following three straight points on a kill, a service ace and a WashU attacking error.
 
The Mountaineers continued to hold a small lead which extended to five, 22-17, following a kill from Carolina Robles and a Fabiana De Jesus service ace.
 
Berea closed out the first set with points in a row on kills from Julie Santana, a Anneliz Cora service ace and a WashU attacking error.
 
WashU hit .294 while Berea hit .303 in the first set.
 
The Bears bounced back in the second set to even the match 1-1.
 
WashU's largest run of the set was a 4-0 from to take a 12-11 lead over Berea. The run started with a Berea service error, followed by a kill from Abby Lie, a Mountaineers' attacking error and a service ace from first-year Sam Buckley.
 
A kill from Li and a Berea attacking error gave WashU a 22-19 lead before Santana recorded back-to-back kills from Berea to cut it down to a single point.
 
The Bears closed out the set with two points.
 
WashU opened the third set with a 5-1 run and ran that up to 9-3. The Bears continued to hold a sizeable lead, going up 17-8 following kills from Li and Lane Bohrer.
 
The Bears recorded kills from sophomore Jasmine Sells, Li and two from Michaela Bach to make it a set point. WashU claimed the set with a block from Lucy Davis and Zoe Foster.
 
In the final set, the teams kept things relatively even until WashU started to pull away in the second half. The Bears put up three-straight points on kills from Davis and Foster to take a 16-11 advantage. Another three points in a row pushed WashU's lead to 22-14 and then WashU closed things out with a kill from Sells and an ace from Buckley.
 
For the second night in a row, Sells matched a career-high 16 kills with a .577 hitting percentage while Bach recorded 11 and Li had eight. Bach led the team with 14 digs on the day and Buckley finished with a career-high 38 assists.
 
WashU 3, North Park 1 (25-21, 19-25, 25-13, 25-22)
The Bears came to go on a 4-2 opening run, but the Vikings bounced back to take a 6-5 lead. North Park went on to take an 11-7 lead before the Bears went on a 6-0 run to go up 13-11.
 
Three-straight points on kills from Bach and Sells and a block from Sells and Li gave the Bears the 16-12 edge.
 
North Park went on to pull even at 19 following three-straight points but the Bears finished out the set with a 4-0 run on kills from Sells and Bach, a Buckley service ace and a Bach and Li block.
 
The second set remained even throughout until the closing points.
 
The Vikings recorded two points on a WashU attacking error and a kill from Rhianna Huebner. They went on to score four-straight to take a 23-18 lead and closed out the set with a kill from Huebner and a service ace from Carolina Aviles.
 
WashU dominated the third set, going on its first major run to build up a 9-5 lead. The Bears then went on another 4-0 run, which included kills from Bach and a service ace from Buckley, to go up 15-8.
 
WashU closed out the set on a 7-2 run, ending things on a kill from Elise Gilroy.
 
The final set remained close throughout, tying 13 different times.
 
Following the final time tied at 18, the Bears put up two points to take a 20-18 lead. Following a kill and ace from Bach, the lead was extended to 23-20 and Sells ended things with a kill.
 
Bach led with a game-high 14 kills while Bohrer and Sells had eight apiece. Amanda Gild recorded three service aces while Li had four blocks.
 
Buckley notched 33 assists while Gurbach recorded 14 digs.
 
The Bears close out the Labor Day Invite with a 10:30 a.m. match against College of Saint Benedict tomorrow.