BEVERLY, MA (September 19, 2023) -- The Tufts University volleyball team combined for 48 kills, hitting .339 for the match as the Jumbos went on the road and picked up a 3-0 sweep over host Endicott College in non-conference play from MacDonald Gymnasium Tuesday.
The Jumbos (4-3) got a team-high 13 kills from senior
Tori Goldin, as she hit .444 for the evening with nine digs and four service aces. Goldin was responsible for 17.5 points on the night, which was tops among all players in the match.
Tufts continued to spread around the love offensively, as setters
Rianna Liu and
Zoe Gregory combined for 39 assists while eight players had three or more kills. The win didn't come easily though, as the host Gulls pushed Tufts the entire way in each of the first two sets.
In the first set, both teams battled back and forth as the period featured 17 tie scores and five lead changes. The Jumbos pushed their lead up to 11-7 in the first frame on a four-point run capped by a kill from senior
Rileigh Farragher which forced a timeout by the Gulls (4-5).
Endicott battled back and took a 17-15 lead on a pair of aces by Savannah Cambell, hosting a 20-17 lead late in the set. Tufts rattled off four of the next four points to tie the set at 21. Both Tufts and Endicott had set points but a kills from first-years
Abigail Gray and
Emma Heckman sandwiched an ace by Liu to secure the set win for Tufts.
In the second set, Tufts posted 16 kills but Endicott hit .333 while hosting a 12-6 lead midway through the period. The Gulls' lead would swell up to as much as seven, but a 7-0 run including a service ace at the end put the Jumbos up 20-19.
Endicott went back up 23-21 but Gray started a 4-0 spurt to finish the set as Liu posted an ace to clinch the second-set win. In the third, the Jumbos would explode offensively with 17 kills and just one error on 35 attempts, hitting .457 to secure the sweep.
Liu had a strong match for the Jumbos with a career-high 28 assists, adding 10 digs for a double-double with four kills and four aces as well. Gray tallied seven terminations, hitting .313, while Heckman finished all seven of her attempts for a 1.000 hitting percentage.
Farragher tallied six kills, and
Claire Castor posted three kills and six digs. Gregory posted 11 assists, and senior libero
Megan Harrison tallied 10 digs. First-year
Becca DePencier Piñero also finished with a career-high eight digs.
Tufts will host the University of California, Santa Cruz on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Cousens Gymnasium.
--JUMBOS--
