MEDFORD, Mass. (October 1, 2022) -- Coming off an important sweep of Middlebury College Friday night, the No. 23 Tufts University volleyball team notched another New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) win Saturday as the Jumbos knocked off Hamilton College in three sets in action from Cousens Gymnasium. The Jumbos earned the win with scores of 25-22, 25-16 and 26-24.
A familiar theme continued from Friday evening to Saturday, and that was the offensive output from the Jumbos as they hit .248 for the match while powering down 45 kills for the afternoon. Five players had seven or more terminations in the win Saturday, including a team-high 10 from Jannelle Yarwood. Despite the sweep, the match the entire way was back and forth, as it featured 26 ties and 11 lead changes over the three sets.
In the opening frame, Hamilton (6-4, 1-3 NESCAC) led for much of the first part of the set including holding a 17-14 lead. The Jumbos would notch a 7-2 run to take a 21-19 lead, riding the advantage to a 25-22 set victory. In the second set, Tufts (8-3, 3-1 NESCAC) controlled the action while hammering down 13 kills and hitting .346 while Hamilton posted seven hitting miscues in the stanza.
In the third set, both teams exchanged leads a handful of times while Hamilton's biggest lead came at 11-8 after a kill from Kate Carman. Tufts rallied back to take the lead at 15-14, but three straight points from the Continentals once again put the visitors on top. The Jumbos tallied four straight points to force a Hamilton timeout, and the Continentals rallied to regain the lead at 22-21. The teams would go back-and-forth before a kill from Yarwood fended off a set point for Hamilton, and two points later Yarwood clinched the victory for Tufts with another kill at 26-24.
Yarwood finished with 10 kills and eight digs, while adding another perfect passing day in serve receive in her eight attempts.
Grace Legris finished with nine kills on only 15 attempts, hitting .533, while also contributing three assisted blocks.
Christine Audette posted eight kills and 10 digs, while
Maddie Yu finished with 20 assists while tying for the team high in digs with 14.
Stephanie Lee also added 14 digs, while
Rileigh Farragher and
Tori Goldin each tallied seven kills.
Anna Nachmanoff came off the bench to add eight digs as well in the win.
Zoe Gregory also chalked up 14 assists in the win.
Tufts has now hit over .200 in four of the last five matches while outscoring its opponents in five straight. Carman finished with 11 kills to lead all hitters Saturday, while Melissa Morelli added 27 assists and five kills for the Continentals.
The Jumbos will have six days off before returning to the Cousens Gymnasium to continue their six-match homestand with a NESCAC outing with Colby College (8-3, 3-2 NESCAC) Friday, October 7 as part of Homecoming 2022 weekend.
--JUMBOS--
