Box Score COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - Led by senior
Danielle Sullivan and a strong team effort at the net, the Swarthmore College volleyball team swept Ursinus College on Wednesday evening. The Garnet won its second consecutive match by set scores of 25-19, 29-27 and 25-21.
With the victory, Swarthmore improves to 15-11 and 3-6 in conference action. Ursinus remains winless in conference action (0-9) and falls to 9-18 overall.
Sullivan anchored the Garnet defense with 19 digs - she's second on the team with 379 total digs this season. She finished with 11 kills for her 12th double-double and second consecutive. Sullivan also picked up two service aces and one solo block in the conference victory.
Swarthmore's front line earned a season-high five blocks - the most since September 14 and the first time with five since the 2011 season in a match against Dickinson (Oct 11). Sophomore
Anastasia White-Torruellas clipped two solo and one assist, while senior
Brone Lobichusky had one solo and one assist. White-Torruellas (16) and
Madison Heppe (11) along with senior
Maggie Duszyk (10) earned double-digit dig counts in the match as well.
In addition to Sullivan's 11 kills, Lobichusky swung 10 for the attack and sophomore
Sam DuBois set 31 assists.
For the Bears, Karla Thiele and Anahi McIntyre earned nine kills each. Leah Masiello picked up 26 digs and Gina Powers collected seven kills and 15 assists.
The opening set saw the teams playing point-for-point until Swarthmore broke away on White-Torruellas' service for a 6-0 run which included two kills fron Lobichusky and solo block from Duszyk. Down 15-11, the Bears picked up three quick points to close the gap. The Garnet returned with three straight kills from Sullivan to build up a 21-16 advantage, going on to take the set 25-19.
Middle set action started out much like the first with the teams scoring at the same rate, playing to a 13-13 tie before Swarthmore broke away again. The Garnet then went on a 7-1 run for a 20-14 lead. Not backing down, the Bears had its own run and paced Swarthmore to pull the set into extra points.
In the final set, Ursinus held the advantage for much of the time - including multiple four-point leads, but Swarthmore found its groove at the end with three straight kills - two from White-Torruellas and one from DuBois - for the 25-21 set victory.
Swarthmore closes out its regular season on Saturday, November 2 with a tri-match at Muhlenberg with the Mules and Moravian College.