NEW LONDON, CT (October 28, 2022) -- The Tufts University volleyball team extended its New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) win streak to eight Friday evening, rolling to a 3-0 league victory over host Connecticut College in action from Luce Fieldhouse.
With the win, the Jumbos (17-5, 8-1 NESCAC) earned the chance to at least share the conference regular season title going into Saturday's regular season finale at Bowdoin College. Tufts could still win the NESCAC regular season title outright and NESCAC Tournament hosting duties next weekend with a win Saturday at Bowdoin and a loss by Wesleyan University in either of its last two matches against Middlebury College and Hamilton College.
The Jumbos didn't trail in either of the first two sets in building a 2-0 match lead, as senior
Jennelle Yarwood hammered down eight kills in the opening two games. The third set was much more competitive, as Tufts used a 7-2 run at 9-9 to take a 16-11 lead after a kill from Yarwood.
Connecticut College would rally to tie the set at 23-23 on a kill by Katherine Randall, but Yarwood and
Grace Legris posted a block followed by a kill from
Emma Norman to clinch the straight set victory.
Yarwood led all hitters Friday evening with 12 kills on 31 attempts, hitting .323 for the night including hitting .300 on first-ball attacks. Yarwood finished one dig short of a double-double with nine defensive saves, while
Maddie Yu registered her 11th double-double with 16 assists and 11 digs.
Maya Lightfoot and
Grace Legris each had five kills, combining for seven assisted blocks, while first-year setter
Zoe Gregory added 12 helpers and four digs.
Alina Qi came off the bench to posted three kills and two digs and two blocks, and
Stephanie Lee chalked up eight digs and two aces.
The Jumbos hit .202 for the match (37-16-104), while adding seven team blocks. The Camels (7-14, 1-9 NESCAC) were paced by the nine kills from Randall, with Taylor Knott also posting seven kills in the loss.
Tufts heads to Bowdoin Saturday at 2 p.m. in Brunswick, ME for the regular season finale.
--JUMBOS--
