ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The No. 11 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team opened up their 2025 season in style with a pair of 3-0 wins over Willamette and Loras to start the Bear Invite on Friday.
WashU 3, Willamette 0 (32-30, 25-20, 25-14)
It might have taken some extra volleyball in set one, but the Bears would sweep the visiting Bearcats from Oregon.
The teams went back and forth in the first set with WashU not leading by more than five points until 20-15.
The Bears would collect set point first off a kill from senior
Eva Boling, 24-20. However, WU would score the next five points to have their own set point at 25-24. The Bearcats eventually would have four more set points with WashU answering each time.
With WU ahead 30-29, the Bears had kills from senior
Naya Ohuabunwa and
Anna Freeman as WashU scored the final three points for the 32-30 set one win.
The Bears jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in set two and never looked back.
Midway through the set with WashU leading 17-11, WU went on a run to cut their deficit down to just one, 17-16. The Bearcats pulled within three at 22-19. With the score at 24-20 in favor of the Bears once again, junior
Leah Oyewole stepped in and closed out the set with a kill off an assist from senior
Sam Buckley, 25-20.
Willamette kept it close in the first few points of the third set, but a pair of five-point runs by the Bears put them ahead 16-8. Trailing by nine at 21-12, the Bearcats closed to within seven before WashU scored the final four points for the 25-14 set win and the match, 3-0.
Junior
Anaia Montaque-Harrison led the Bears with her first double-double of the season with 10 kills and 13 digs. Ohuabunwa did not commit an error in the match and was just shy of Montaque-Harrison with nine kills and a .500 hitting percentage.
Buckley guided the offense with 40 assists while junior
Ellie Laird led WashU with 15 digs. First-year
Nia Jones had three blocks to lead at the net.
WashU 3, Loras 0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-16)
A quick first set helped lead WashU to a 3-0 sweep of Loras.
The Bears started the first set on a 9-1 run and later would use a 7-1 run to jump ahead 20-7. Despite trading the next six points, the Duhawks trailed by 14 and a Loras attack error closed out the first set, 25-11.
Not wanting to go away too quickly, the Duhawks would score four straight points after trailing by two to take their first lead of the match 6-4 in the second set.
WashU began to chip away and regained the lead at 9-8. A 4-0 run put them ahead 13-9 and a block by Boling put the Bears ahead 17-11. Loras cut their deficit down to just four at 21-17, but a pair of Duhawks attack errors and a service error coupled with a kill from Ohuabunwa closed out the set 25-17.
The third set saw Loras once again take an early lead before giving it up on a 6-1 run by the Bears, 10-6.
WashU eventually extended their lead to as many as eight at 21-13 before a kill from Oyewole put the final lead at nine and closed out the set and match 25-16.
Oyewole and Montaque-Harrison led WashU with double-figure kills with 14 and 13, respectively. The pair also led the way with a .480 and .462 hitting percentage.
Buckley doubled up her assists on the night with 40 more against the Duhawks while Laird added 18 digs.
WashU returns to the court tomorrow, Saturday, August 30 when they take on Bluffton at 10 a.m. before closing out the weekend at 3 p.m. against Carthage. All Bears games are being played inside the Field House.
