CHESTER, Pa.–For the second time this season, the Swarthmore College volleyball team (5-1) beat local rival Widener by a 3-0 score with the Garnet's 25-6, 25-21, 21-18 sweep of the host Pride on Tuesday, Sep. 13.

The pair of Mehra den Braven and Sarah Wallace combined for 25 kills while Wallace also completed the double-double on 11 digs. Sophomore Elise Cummings had one of her own with 13 assists and 11 digs to go with two service aces. Junior Malia Scott just missed out with 21 assists and eight digs while sophomore Sarah Girard had a team-high 12 digs.

The Garnet jumped out ahead to an early lead as they hit .333 in the first set while limiting the Pride to a -.270 mark on only two kills to 12 errors. Wallace got things started with two kills in the first six points and Widener was forced to take a timeout trailing 6-2. Swarthmore expanded its lead to double digits at 16-6 and Girard served out the remainder of the set, which featured two kills apiece by den Braven, Alice Liu and Olivia Leventhal.

The Pride rebounded in the second set for a 12-8 advantage before the Garnet used a five-point run on Girard's serve to get back in the set. At 14-14, den Braven buried two consecutive kills and Bridget Scott added one of her seven in the match to give Swarthmore a lead it would not relinquish. Widener stayed it in, however, and trimmed its deficit to one before Wallace swung two straight kills for a 23-20 margin. Three points later, Den Braven put Swarthmore one set away from the victory with a big kill on Wallace's serve.

Both teams traded the lead set number three until Swarthmore won five consecutive points with Guin Mesh serving to break open the game. Widener never threatened and two more kills by den Braven in the final three points sealed the fifth consecutive victory for the visiting Garnet.

Swarthmore will defend its title at the Knights Invitational hosted by Neumann on Friday and Saturday, Sep. 16-17.