WILLIAMSTOWN, MA (October 4, 2024) -- The Tufts University volleyball team had three players chalk up double-digit kills, improving to 4-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) with a 3-1 win over host Williams College inside Chandler Gymnasium.
The Jumbos won the first two sets 25-12 and 25-20, dropped set three 25-21 before clinching the match victory with a 25-18 win in the fourth set.
The balance on attack was evident as Tufts saw sophomores
Claire Castor and
Emma Heckman each tally 12 kills while first-year
Maiwenn Kamdje hammered home 11 terminations in the win. The Jumbos ame out hot on Friday evening in the opening frame, leading by as much as 11 at 16-5 before Williams rallied to make if 16-12. The Jumbos would regain control, scoring the final nine points of the frame highlighted by two aces by
Rianna Liu.
In the second, the teams exchanged the lead three times throughout the period while adding seven tie scores. The Jumbos were deadlocked at 20 late in the period, but a well-timed timeout saw Tufts regain its footing before collecting the final five points to double its lead to 2-0. Castor had five kills in the second set for Tufts.
The third frame was also close throughout, but Williams tallied five of the final six points to trim the Tufts lead to 2-1 as the Ephs' Keely Campuzano had five kills in the set victory. The fourth would be all Jumbos as they led for nearly the entire period as Kamdje's seven successful attacks in the period pushed Tufts to the win.
Castor finished just one dig shy of a double-double, tallying nine digs to go with three assisted blocks while hitting .219 for the match. Heckman swung at a .276 clip, recording five digs and six blocks, and Kamdje 11 kills marked the third time in the last four matches with double-digit terminations.
Senior
Alina Qi tallied five assisted blocks and four kills for the Jumbos, and
Julia Griffiths also record five total blocks and three terminations in the middle. Junior
Emma Norman also came off the bench to tally four kills, and first-year
Celina Savage enjoyed a nice homecoming with three kills as well.
Liu finished with 23 assists, four digs and two service aces, while first-year setter
Ellery Clark dished out a career-high 20 assists on top of two aces and eight digs. First-year libero
Dylan Whisenant had 14 digs and three aces, and classmate
Matsa Shi also booked 11 digs and three service aces.
Tufts hit .170 for the match, but tallied 11 aces while allowing just three against.
Williams was led by the 13 kills from Campuzano, while Annaliese Fricke also had 11 kills for the Ephs (8-5, 1-3 NESCAC) in the loss.
The Jumbos will travel to Middlebury, Vermont tomorrow for another NESCAC battle with Middlebury College at 2 p.m.
--NESCAC--
