COLLEGE
VOLLEYBALL FINAL SCORE
Hall of Fame Invitational
Tufts 3, Smith 1 (25-11, 17-25, 26-24, 25-12)
At Northampton, MA
Friday, October 23, 2009
Match
Statistics
NORTHAMPTON -- The Tufts University volleyball team opened play
at the 2009 Hall of Fame Invitational with a 3-1 victory at Smith
College on Friday night. Coach Cora Thompson's team, annual
participants in the tournament, improved to 23-2 overall.
The Jumbos will play MIT in the Gold Bracket semi-finals on
Saturday at noon, again at Smith College. The Engineers defeated
Brandeis University in five sets on Friday night. The winner will
advance to the tournament championship match on Saturday at 4:00
pm. Williams and Amherst play in the other semi-final on Saturday
at noon.
Tufts is the top-ranked team at the tournament as the #1 seed in
the Gold Bracket. After beating Smith by 14 in the first set
(25-11), the Jumbos lost the second set 25-17 to the Pioneers. The
third set went extra, with Tufts winning 26-24. The Jumbos
regrouped and finished it off easily 25-12 in the fourth set. The
host Pioneers, whose record dropped to 6-15, are the #8 seed in the
Gold Bracket.
Junior Dawson Joyce-Mendive (Minden, NV) had 12
kills to lead Tufts, backed up by eight from senior co-captain
Brogie Helgeson (Santa Cruz, CA). Junior
Caitlin Updike (Manhattan Beach, CA) served four
aces for the offense. On defense, the Jumbos did a good job at the
net with first-year Brittany Neff (Culver City,
CA) assisting on seven blocks and junior co-captain
Dena Feiger (Long Grove, IL) assisting five.
Feiger also led the Jumbos with 22 digs, followed by 17 from
sophomore Audrey Kuan (Los Altos, CA).
Laurel Belton (San Bernadino, CA) led Smith with 24 digs and six
service aces, while Courtney Faria (Pocasset, MA) and Lauren
Martinez (Phoenix, AZ) combined for 28 assists. Senior defensive
specialist Brianne Connizzo (Demarest, NJ) added 19 digs with two
service aces in the loss.
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