Volleyball Rallies To Beat Cornell In Five Sets
Sep 11, 2019
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa - The University of Dubuque volleyball team fell behind two sets to one on Wednesday night to the Cornell College Rams, but the Spartans stormed back on the road to win the final two sets and take the match, 3-2 (24-26,25-15,23-25,25-20,15-8).
The first set was a back and fourth battle, but it was Cornell who got the last rally in the opening set when the set was tied at 23 all, the Rams would score three of the next four points to jump ahead 1-0. The Spartans jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead in the second set and never looked back, cruising to win the set 25-15, but would drop the third set 23-25 to fall into a 1-2 hole.
With the fourth set sitting at a score of 20-18 in favor of UD, the Spartans would score 5 of the next seven points to force a deciding fifth set. The Spartans would carry that momentum over from the end of the fourth set, getting out to a 13-3 lead in the final set before taking the set 15-8 and getting the come from behind road victory.
The Spartans snapped a three match losing streak behind the offensive efforts of Grace Hintze and Kara Wright. Hintze led the UD attack with a game-high 20 kills, while Wright was not far behind with 13, which was more than any Ram. Sarrah Farraday also managed to reach double digit kills with 10 and Kate Messino assisted on 45 of UD's 60 kills in the match.
The UD defense was a key part in the comeback, coming up with eight total blocks (14 assists), compared to Cornell's two total blocks. Rylee Andresen led the way at the night with five of those block assists, while Hintze and Shauna McAleer each had three. Six different Spartans had at least 10 kills on Wednesday night, with Grace Strawser having a game-high of 23. To go along with her 45 assists, Messino added 17 digs, while Wright and Hintze would add 13 and 12 digs, respectively.
The Spartans were much more efficient on the offensive side, ending the game with a hitting percentage of .202 to Cornell's .123.
Up next, the Spartans head to Chicago for a pair of matches against the University of Chicago at 11 a.m. on Saturday and North Park University right after at 1:30 p.m.
