SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The No. 13 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team closed out its Texas trip with a big five-set win over No. 3 Trinity, 3-2, on Saturday. The Bears return to St. Louis with an 8-2 record as they ready for the first of three UAA Round Robins next weekend.
WashU won the match 20-25,
25-23,
25-12, 18-25,
15-8.
The first set started with the teams exchanging points back-and-forth. After tying it at 5-5, the Bears put up the next two points for a 7-5 edge over the Tigers.
Trinity pulled it even again at 7-7 and the set went on to be tied up eight more times. Tied at 18, Trinity scored the next four points for a 22-18 advantage before closing it out with two kills to take the first set 25-20.
The Tigers went up 8-2 to open up the second set and were up by as many as 12-5 before the Bears stormed back, starting with three points in a row on kills from sophomore
Abby Krause, sophomore
Nia Jones and first-year
Anya Mikhailenko.
Down 23-18, the Bears closed out the set in a big way, going on a 7-0 run for the win. That run included three kills from senior
Leah Oyewole, an ace from senior
Ellie Laird and blocks from senior
Anaia Montaque-Harrison and Jones.
After exchanging points to open the third set, the Bears went on a 6-0 run to take an 11-4 lead. In the run, Oyewole had three aces in a row. Another three points from WashU extended the Bears lead to 14-5.
The Tigers made it an 18-11 set before WashU scored six-straight including two kills from Oyewole. It was Oyewole who scored the final point, laying down a kill for the 25-12 set win.
Trinity went on a 6-0 run to open the fourth set before the Bears scored three in a row on kills from first-year
Saoirse Henderson, Mikhailenko and Oyeweole. Another two points from WashU made it a two-point, 8-6 set.
The Tigers continued to hold a multi-point lead, going up by as many as seven. The Bears pulled within four, 18-14, but Trinity ended up pulling out the set 25-18 to force a fifth and final set.
Mikhailenko opened the fifth set with back-to-back aces to give WashU an early lead. The Tigers tied it up 2-2 before the Bears posted three-straight points for a 5-2 edge. A kill from Oyewole and an ace from Laird extended it to 7-3.
After Trinity scored two in a row to make it a two-point set (7-5), the Bears scored the next three for a 10-5 lead.
Up 13-8, WashU scored two points in a row to close things out, ending on a kill from Krause.
Oyewole finished with 19 kills while Krause had 12. Jones recorded seven blocks on the day. Mihailenko had a double-double of 41 assists and 16 digs, while also adding four blocks.
The Bears head to Rochester, N.Y. next weekend for the first UAA Round Robin where they will face Emory, Brandeis and NYU.
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