ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Playing its final mid-week home contest of the regular season, the No. 8 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team earned the 3-0 sweep of Rose-Hulman on Wednesday evening. The Bears won the first two sets and came from behind in the third to improve to 19-4 on the season.
WashU jumped out early to a 7-1 lead in the first set. Several small runs by the Bears could not be counteracted by RHIT as WashU would take an 18-8 lead midway through the set. The teams traded the next five points with the Bears still maintaining a nine-point lead, 20-11. Four-straight points including two services aces from sophomore Ellie Laird and kills from senior McKenzie Washington and junior Eva Boling gave WashU its first set point. A Fightin' Engineer service error close out the set for the Bears, 25-12.
It was much closer throughout most of the second set with the Bears having a 16-12 advantage. A 5-0 run by WashU would see that lead balloon to a 21-12 gap. Not going away quickly, RHIT scored five of the next six to cut the lead back down to five at 22-17. However, the Bears responded winning three of the next four, capped by a kill from junior Anna Freeman, to close out the second set, 25-18.
The third set saw the reversal of the early portion of the second with the Fightin' Engineers taking a four-point lead and then seeing it extend up to an18-10 midway through. The Bears pulled within five on a kill by graduate Lily Steinbach, 21-16. RHIT would then claim the next three points for their first set point of the match.
Needing to win the next eight-straight points to extend the set, the Bears got a service error from RHIT and then an attack error by the visitors. Two kills by Washington and one from first-year Emma Quast pulled WashU within three, 24-21. Another RHIT attack error followed by a block from Quast and Steinbach, and a second kill from Quast tied the score up at 24-24. The Fightin' Engineers would follow up with two more set points, the second at 26-15. The Bears would score the next two points to earn their first match point of the set. After an RHIT kill, a kill from Quast and another visitor attack error saw WashU come back and earn the sweep, 29-27 and the match 3-0.
The match saw 13 different Bears hit home a kill, led by seven from each of Washington, graduate Lauren McCurley, and senior Jasmine Sells.
Junior Sam Buckley dished out a match-high 33 assists while both senior Elise Gilroy and Laird each scooped up double-figure digs with 14 and 10, respectively.
The Bears improved to 6-0 all-time against Rose-Hulman, having never dropped a set in the series.
WashU is back on the court on Saturday, Oct. 19 when they host a tri-match with North Park and Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The Bears take on North Park at 10:30 a.m. and close out the day against UWSP at 3:30 p.m. All games will take place in the Field House.
