Box Score
BALTIMORE – Senior Cate Desler and junior Jennelle Yarwood combined for 25 kills and the Tufts volleyball team cruised to a 3-0 win over Cortland in the second round of NCAA Tournament play at Johns Hopkins on Saturday afternoon. The Jumbos will now take on the host Blue Jays on Sunday at 2 pm with a trip to the Elite 8 on the line.
The Jumbos improve to 20-5 this year with the win, while Cortland sees their season come to an end with a 27-4 record.
The two teams traded points to open the first set, but with things locked at three the Jumbos got a kill from senior Jennifer Ryan to take a 4-3 lead. They then scored eight straight points behind the serve of senior Ariel Zedric to take a 12-3 lead. A couple points later, the Jumbos would score five more straight points, this time behind the serve of junior Stephanie Lee to take a 18-5 lead. The Jumbos picked up a 25-8 win in set one.
Tufts took an early lead in set two. With the score 1-1 the Jumbos got a couple kills from Desler, another from junior Grace Legris, an ace from Yarwood and a Red Dragon error to take an early 6-1 lead. Cortland played with the Jumbos, but they weren't able to put a dent in the lead and Tufts earned the 25-16 win in set two to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Red Dragons took the early lead in the third set. But, a kill from Yarwood tied things at eight and then the Jumbos got another kill from Yarwood, a kill from Desler, a couple of aces from sophomore Maddie Yu and a Red Dragon error to climb out to a 13-8 lead. They held on to that for the 25-20 win in set three to take the match.
Yarwood finished with 13 kills and 12 digs while Desler turned in 12 kills and 11 digs. Ryan added six kills and six blocks, while Legris added a couple of kills and four blocks. Sophomore Rileigh Farragher also helped with seven kills. Yu and Zedric split the setting, finishing with 18 and 16 assists, respectively. Lee added 15 digs to the match.
Nicole Van Pelt was the offensive leader for the Red Dragons with eight kills. Mikenzie Martens led the defnse with 10 digs and Ryan Hinshaw and Megan McMahon handled the setting, totaling 16 assists between the two of them. The Jumbos held the Red Dragons to a .018 hitting percentage across the three sets.
Tufts will now face off with the host Blue Jays on Sunday at 2 pm for the Regional title. Sunday's winner heads to St. Louis for the NCAA Championship.
> 2021 NCAA Division III Volleyhball Championship Bracket
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