MIDDLEBURY, VT (October 5, 2024) -- The Tufts University volleyball team saw its win streak of four matches come to an end on Saturday afternoon, as the Jumbos were topped in four games to host Middlebury College in action from Pepin Gymnasium in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play with scores of 25-22, 25-23, 17-25 and 25-19.
The loss for Tufts (7-6, 4-1 NESCAC) was its first in conference play, while Middlebury improved to 11-4 overall and 5-0 in the league.
The first two sets were back-and-forth with 13 ties and five lead changes in the pair of stanzas, but Middlebury was able to outlast Tufts in the first two frames to take a 2-0 lead. Tufts led for the majority of the third set, turning an 11-10 lead into an eight-point edge at 18-10 after a block by
Julia Griffiths and
Celina Savage followed by five straight kills. Middlebury got as close as 20-16, but the Jumbos would pull back away to take a 25-17 third-set win.
In the fourth, Middlebury used an early 4-0 run to take a healthy lead and would fend off a pair of rallies by the Jumbos before pulling away for the 25-19 win in the fourth frame.
Sophomore setter
Rianna Liu had a strong match for Tufts with her seventh double-double of the season, posting 14 digs to go with 16 assists and four kills. First-year libero
Matsa Shi tallied a career-high 23 digs on Saturday, marking the highest dig total for a Jumbo this season and the most in a match since
Megan Harrison '24 finished with 28 against Babson College last year.
First-year libero
Dylan Whisenant tallied 12 digs and five assists as well, and Griffiths chalked up another seven blocks to go with five kills. Offensively,
Emma Heckman was the Jumbo leader in kills with 14, hitting .243 from the right side in addition to her seven digs.
Claire Castor had nine kills and seven digs and a team-high four aces. First-year
Maiwenn Kamdje also tallied eight kills for Tufts, who posted a slight 53-52 edge in terminations on Saturday.
The match was very tight in terms of statistics, as both teams had 10 blocks with Tufts holding slight leads in aces (8-6) and digs (84-70).
Middlebury got a match-high 19 kills from Molly Harrison, and Ava Tuccio had six blocks and 11 kills in the win. Gabbie O'Toole also had a double-double of 40 assists and 16 digs.
Tufts will have a few days off before taking on Brandeis University at 6 p.m. Tuesday, October 8 inside Cousens Gymnasium.
--JUMBOS--
