ITHACA, NY (November 16, 2023) -- The Tufts University volleyball team took the opening two sets against Eastern University, but the Eagles rallied back to take a five-set victory over the Jumbos in the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament First Round from Ben Light Gymnasium at Ithaca College. The Jumbos fell 26-28, 21-25, 27-25, 25-22 and 15-8.
The Jumbos (14-11) showed battle all match long, erasing deficits in the first two sets to take a 2-0 match lead after finishing the second set with a 7-1 run including a set-winning kill by senior
Megan Harrison. In the third set, Tufts was down 19-16 after a termination by Jailene Lugo by Eastern (28-3), but Tufts rattled five straight to take a 21-19 edge.
Eastern would tie the set at 22, but kills by
Tori Goldin and
Emma Norman made it 24-22 while giving Tufts a pair of match points. The Eagles fought them off three total match points over the next four points, and ended the set on a three-point run to stay alive.
In the fourth set, Tufts led 14-10 after an ace by Harrison, and also held a 19-17 edge late in the set following an errant set by Eastern. The Eagle went on a 4-1 run to take a 21-20 lead, and finished the game on another 4-1 spurt to tie the match at two sets apiece.
In the fifth, the Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the stanza and never trailed in moving into the NCAA Second Round. Eastern will take on No. 7 NYU after the Violets knocked off Eastern Nazarene in three sets.
A trio of seniors in Goldin,
Rileigh Farragher and
Cora Cunningham all finished with 13 kills for the match as Cunningham hit .458 for the afternoon. Farragher and Cunningham each added five blocks, while first-year
Claire Castor finished with nine kills, two blos, two aces and five digs.
Alina Qi tallied five terminations and a team-high nine blocks (one solo), and first-year
Emma Heckman also tallied five kills. First-year
Rianna Liu posted two kills in addition to her double-double of 21 assists and 11 digs, and senior
Maddie Yu finished with 28 assists and 12 digs as well. Harrison finished her career with 21 digs and seven assists, and Becca DePencier Pinero registered seven digs as well.
The Jumbos led the match in kills, points and blocks, but Eastern was able to convert at a higher rate offensively to pull out the win. Eastern was paced by the 20 kills from Hannah Pringle, and Bridgette Kelly also added 13 kills and six blocks. Logan Martin registered 14 kills, and setter Elle Jiron-Bujanda tallied 53 helpers and 15 digs in the win.
--JUMBOS--
