South Hadley, Mass. – Behind 16 combined kills from both Danielle Sullivan '14 and Kat Montemurro '13, the Swarthmore College volleyball team split a pair of matches against NESCAC opponents on Saturday. Swarthmore fell to Tufts in straight sets (25-20, 25-22, 29-27) before rebounding against Colby (25-14, 25-16, 25-23) on the second day of the Hall of Fame Tournament from Mt. Holyoke.

With 23 kills in the three match tournament, Montemurro was named to the 2012 All-Tournament Team.

In the first set against Tufts, the Jumbos jumped out to a 16-9 advantage before Swarthmore came roaring back to tie the set at 19. But Tufts ran off six of the next seven points to close the set.

The second set mirrored the first with Tufts jumping out to a large lead midway through before three consecutive Danielle Sullivan kills pulled Swarthmore to within 14-13. The teams exchanged points for much of the remainder of the set with Brone Lobichusky '14 picking up a critical ace and libero Kate Amodei '15 recording eight digs in the set. Another late run, with the Jumbos taking four of the last five points, put the Garnet in a 2-0 hole.

A thrilling third set saw the Garnet fight off three match points before ultimately falling 29-27 in extra points. Swarthmore jumped out to a 5-2 advantage early only to watch Tufts respond with a 4-0 run to take a 6-5 lead. Maggie Duszyk '14 paced the Swarthmore offense in the third set with five of her six kills in the contest. Lobichusky also picked up two solo blocks in the set.

For the match, Allie Coleman '13 finished with 28 assists to go with 10 digs and three kills. Amodei led the defense with 14 digs while Montemurro and Samantha DuBois '16 also figured with double-digit digs.

Against Colby, the Garnet broke away early behind the offense of Zahra Ahmed '15 and the serving of Montemurro. Ahmed recorded five kills on just eight attempts in the first set while Montemurro ran off a string of three consecutive aces as the Garnet quickly opened a double-digit advantage. Amodei also finished the set with 10 digs.

In the second set, Duszyk, Lobichusky, Sullivan, and Montemurro each recorded three kills for the diversified Garnet attack with Lobichusky and Montemurro each needing just four swings to do so. The Garnet committed just two errors in the set and hit .353 to take a commanding advantage.

Though Swarthmore committed as many hitting errors (seven) in the third set as in the first two sets combined, tremendous defense, with Montemurro, Sullivan, and Madison Heppe '16 each posting five digs in the set, kept the Garnet out in front. After three consecutive hitting errors brought the Mules within one at 24-23, Ahmed '14 finished from the right side to end the match.

The Garnet returns to Tarble Pavilion for the final two matches of the season against Tri-Co Rivals Bryn Mawr and Haverford. The opening serve against the Owls on Tuesday, October 23 is scheduled for 7 PM.