MEDFORD, MA (September 20, 2024) -- Behind career nights from sophomore
Rianna Liu and
Claire Castor, the Tufts Volleyball team made quick work of visiting Hamilton College in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) opener for both squads. Tufts rolled past the Continentals in three sets, 25-10, 25-20 and 25-17.
The story of the contest was the play of the dynamic sophomore duo for the Jumbos, as Castor finished with a career-high 20 kills on 35 swings, hitting .486 for the match along with seven digs. She also added seven digs and also passed all 12 receptions without an error. The 20 kills were the most in a match for a Tufts player since Jenelle Yarwood hammered down 20 against Williams College October 14, 2022.
Liu was just as dynamic, as she finished one short of a career-high in assists with 27 while adding a match-best and career-high 21 digs. The 20-20 game for Liu was the first for a Jumbo since
Maddie Yu accomplished the feat on October 8, 2022 against Hope College.
Things could not have started out any better for the Jumbos (4-5, 1-0 NESCAC) as Liu started with the ball to open the match serving and by the time she was done it was 16-1 Tufts. During that run,
Emma Heckman posted four kills while Liu also had three aces. Tufts would cruise to an opening set win as an
Akpevwe Akpoigbe termination sealed the 1-0 lead for the hosts. Heckman finished with six kills, while Liu had six assists, three aces and nine digs in the stanza. First-year
Dylan Whisenant also added two digs and six assists in the opening frame.
The second set saw the Continentals (3-5, 0-1 NESCAC) lead by as many as 10 at 15-5 but the Jumbos would storm back thanks to a 10-2 run started by back-to-back blocks by
Julia Griffiths and Heckman. The run continued until Tufts tied the match at 18 on a kill from Castor, as she finished with eight kills in the period including seven after Hamilton led 15-9. Castor would clinch the set with a kill down the line to put the Jumbos up 2-0.
Whisenant had 11 digs in the second set, as Tufts forced Hamilton into eight attacking errors.
In the third, both teams passed the lead back-and-forth before a 7-0 run put Tufts up for good en route to a three-set sweep of Hamilton. Tufts posted a side-out percentage of 70% in the third set, while hitting .265 to pull away, getting eight more Castor kills in the final frame.
In addition to Castor, Heckman had a strong night with 10 kills and three total blocks, and Griffiths hit .714 on the evening with five terminations and six blocks. Whisenant finished one shy of her career-high with 15 digs, and
Christine Audette was stellar on defense with 10 perfect receptions and six digs.
Tufts attacked at a .244 rate for the night, totaling 44 kills on 119 attempts. The Jumbos also were great in transition, hitting .342 led by 16 kills in 23 chances by Castor including 11 first transition attack kills.
Hamilton was paced by seven kills from Elodie McGeiver, and Mia Jessen had 11 digs in the loss.
The weekend stays busy for the Jumbos, as they return to Cousens Gymnasium at 2 p.m. Saturday to host Amherst College (8-1, 0-1 NESCAC) in more conference action.
--JUMBOS--
