Greenville, Ill. – The No. 6 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team produced a four-set victory on the road at Greenville on Wednesday evening in non-conference play.
WashU won the match 25-14, 25-18, 24-26, 25-14 to remain unbeaten as they move to 13-0 overall on the year. The last time the Bears started a season 13-0 was a decade ago back in the 2012 season.
For the eighth time this season, the Bears finished the match with at least 50 kills, marking 51 in total on Wednesday.
With 628 kills this season, Washington U. ranks seventh nationally in total team kills and leads the UAA.
Michaela Bach, who is now 20 kills away from reaching 1,000 for her career, led WashU with nine kills on the night in two sets played.
Lily Steinbach posted a season-high seven kills, while Lane Bohrer added six. Altogether, 13 different Bears collected at least one kill in the win.
Additionally, the Bears registered a season-best 13 service aces in the road win, matching a season-high.
Defensively, the Bears were led by Elise Gilroy, who posted a career-high 23 digs in the victory and matched her career-high in service aces with five to lead WU.
Jasmine Sells added nine digs, while both Bach and Bohrer tallied seven digs apiece.
Sam Buckley led the Bears in the assists column with 27, as Faith Phillips also notched 16.
After trading points back-and-forth through the first 25 points of the opening set, WashU maintained a 13-12 edge. The Bears would separate themselves in the set using a key 12-2 scoring run to close out the set thanks to five team kills and three service aces throughout the run.
In the second set, the Bears finished with 13 kills and jumped ahead to an 11-6 advantage. The Panthers reduced the lead down to 17-13, but WU would not allow the margin to slim any further, closing out the frame on an 8-5 run.
WashU won the final two points of the set on Greenville errors.
In the third frame, the Bears had their highest mark of kills in a set with 14 but committed seven errors.
Greenville also had its best hitting percentage clip of the match at .196 and tallied 13 kills.
Trailing 10-8, the Bears went on an 8-2 run to take the lead back at 16-12. However, GU would storm back and tie up the set at 21-21. After WashU won the next two points, the Panthers scored on five of the next six points to win the third set and force a fourth frame.
In the fourth, the Bears never trailed. Leading 8-7, WU quickly extended its lead out to a comfortable margin at 18-10 following an 8-3 scoring run.
WashU won the final three points of the set and a kill from Bach on match point secured the win at 25-14.
The Bears will next travel to Bloomington, Ill. on Friday for a pair of matches against Aurora and Illinois Wesleyan.
