ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Playing for the first time in a week, the No. 8 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team got to host a match for the first time this season inside the WashU Field House on Wednesday night. The Bears used the opportunity to take down the Blue Jays of Westminster, 3-1 to improve to 16-4 overall on the season.
Westminster opened the match with three-straight points before a 5-0 run by WashU put the home team ahead 5-3. Another 3-0 stretch by the Blue Jays gave them the lead again, 6-5. Just like before the Bears scored five unanswered points and 10 of the next 12 points to nearly double up the visitors 15-8. The run saw kills by senior Lucy Davis, senior Zoe Foster, sophomore Leah Oyewole, and a pair of service aces by Davis.
Westminster pulled within five at 21-16, but four-straight points by WashU gave them the 1-0 match lead with a 25-16 set one win.
The second set looked to be all Bears. After WashU score the first three points and had a 3-1 lead, the home team took a commanding 13-1 advantage. The Bears would lead by as many as 14 points on two occasions before the Blue Jays tried to chip away at the lead. Ahead by nine, WashU got the benefit of a service error by Westminster to take a 2-0 match lead after claiming the second set, 25-15.
Not wanting to go away quickly, the Blue Jays claimed the third set, 25-23 after keeping the Bears at bay for most of the set. Westminster had the first set point at 24-22, but a kill by graduate Isabella Lipacis got WashU within one. However, a Blue Jay kill pulled the visitors within a set, 2-1.
There was not a 10-0 run by the Bears in the fourth set, but several smaller runs, including a pair of 5-0 and one 6-0 run as WashU earned a 23-9 lead. The Blue Jays scored three of the final five points, but it was kills by graduate Lauren McCurley and junior Eva Boling the closed out the set 25-12, and the match 3-1.
12 different Bears recorded at least two kills on the night, led by McCurley's and senior McKenzie Washington's seven.
Junior Sam Buckley had the match-high in assists with 35 and shared the match-high in digs, with 17, with senior Elise Gilroy, for her seventh double-double of the season.
McCurley was one of 10 WashU players to tally a block, leading the way with six.
The Bears will be back in action Sunday as they host the UAA Round Robin #2 on Sunday, Oct. 13. WashU takes on Brandeis at 10 a.m. before facing off against No. 6 Emory at 2 p.m. All the Bears' matches will take place in the Field House.
