DUBUQUE, Iowa – Playing in its third tournament of the season, the No. 14 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team opened up the Loras Volleyball Tournament with a pair of wins over Wisconsin-River Falls and host Loras on Friday evening in Dubuque.
WashU 3, UW-River Falls 0
The first set with the Falcons starting off strong with a 4-1 opening run. WashU answered with a 5-0 run, started, and finished by a UWRF hitting errors. The Bears began to pull away after leading 7-5 with a pair of 4-0 runs to stake themselves a 14-6 lead. The Falcons secured two kills before an 11-0 run by WashU, which included kills by senior Zoe Foster, graduate Isabella Lipacis, senior Jasmine Sells, and a service ace by senior Elise Gilroy to close out the set 25-8.
The beginning of the second set was much different with the Bears using a trio of two-point spurts to take a 6-3 lead before UWRF tied the score up at 6-6 with a 3-0 run. Not to be outdone the Bears answered with their own 3-0 run and a 5-0 run to jump out to a 15-8 advantage. Pulling within two, 17-15, the Falcons would not get any closer. Every point by the Wisconsin team was answered by WashU with a kill by graduate Lily Steinbach, block by Steinbach and junior Sam Buckley, and service ace from senior Lucy Davis wrapped up the set 25-19, giving the Bears the 2-0 match lead.
Neither team could score more than four points in a row in the third set until late, with both teams answering the other nearly point for point throughout the set. WashU held a 23-18 set lead before a 7-1 run by the Falcons gave them their first set point of the night. The Bears would then go point for point before having their third set point of the set 28-27. After UWRF tied up the set 28-28, WashU used a kill by Sells and a Falcon hitting error to narrowly take the extra-point set 30-28, and the match, 3-0.
Sells finished with the match-high 10 kills while Buckley recorded 29 assists in the three-set sweep. Sophomore Ellie Laird led both teams with the match-high 13 digs.
WashU 3, Loras 2
For the first time in five years, the Bears and Duhawks faced off against each other on the volleyball court, this time with WashU flipping the result and coming away with a 3-2 win to finish day one of the Loras Volleyball Tournament.
Much like their final set against UW-River Falls, the Bears could not pull away early from their opponent with the teams tied up at 7-7. Loras then began to chip away at the WashU defense, putting themselves ahead 16-10 midway through the set. WashU got within four on three occasions, but the Duhawks closed out the set 25-19.
The second was much like the first in the early goings with WashU leading 7-6. An 8-1 run, however, in favor of the Bears allowed the visitors to jump out to a 15-7 advantage. WashU saw kills from Steinbach and Sells, along with service aces from Davis and Gilroy as part of the run. Despite a 4-1 run, the Duhawks could not get any closer with a kill by Foster closing out the set 25-16, tying the match up at a set apiece.
The third set went back and forth for longer than the first two sets with WashU in front 14-12. 3-0 runs by both teams kept the Bears ahead by two, 17-15. However, Loras would not score again the rest of the way with an 8-0 run by WashU to close out the set 25-15.
The Duhawks did not want to go away quietly as the Bears would not have a lead in the fourth set until 11-10 and their last lead at 13-12. Loras would slowly use small runs to pull away while not allowing WashU back in the set, tying the match up for the second time, 2-2, with a 25-21 set four win.
Loras took the first point of the fifth and final set and took a quick 4-2 lead as the Bears called timeout. The quick break worked for WashU as they went on a 6-0 run to take their own lead, 8-4, as the teams switched ends of the court. The Duhawks pulled within one, 9-8 and tied the score up at 10-10 midway through the set. Kills from Sells and Foster pushed the WashU lead back to two before a pair of kills by Sells closed out the set as the Bears scored the final three points to take the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
Four Bears reached double-figure kills with Sells and Steinbach each tallying a team-high 13 while Davis and Foster each recording 10.
Buckley finished with another match-high of 49 assists.
Sells recorded her fourth double-double of the season as she also tied the match-high 17 digs with Gilroy.
WashU will wrap up action at the Loras Tournament on Saturday with a pair of matches, starting with a 10 a.m. match with St. Norbert and finishing with a 2 p.m. match against Wisconsin Lutheran. The Bears have not played SNC and WLC since 2017 and 2013, respectively.
