ST. LOUIS, MO (September 7, 2024) -- The Tufts University volleyball team dropped its first contests of the 2024 campaign, dropping a five-set heart breaker to No. 9 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges before falling in three games to host Washington University of St. Louis in play from Washington University Field House Saturday afternoon.
Tufts fell to CMS 25-17, 23-25, 18-25, 25-14 and 15-7 in the opening match of the day before falling 25-23, 25-17 and 25-20 to the host Bears in the final match of the East-West Classic.
Match 1: CMS 3, Tufts 2
In the opening match of the day, the Jumbos led after three sets after getting strong sets in the second and third, but the No. 9 Athenas were able to rally for the victory.
Sophomore
Abigail Gray finished with a team-high and new collegiate-high 10 kills on 22 attempts, while graduate student
Christine Audette chilled in with eight kills, five assists and eight digs. Sophomore
Emma Heckman also had eight kills in addition to six total blocks, as the Jumbos tallied 15 total rejections.
Senior middle
Alina Qi also tallied six kills, three solo blocks and four assisted rejections, while sophomore middle
Akpevwe Akpoigbe had four kills, six total blocks and four digs. Sophomore setter
Rianna Liu recorded 12 digs and 15 assists, and setter partner
Ella Norris dished out 14 assists as well. First-year
Dylan Whisenant Added 14 digs, a team-high, along with four assists.
Brooke McKee tallied 15 kills to pace the Athenas, while Shae Delany also had 11 kills and 10 digs for CMS (4-1).
Match 2: WashU 3, Tufts 0
The third and final match of the St. Louis trip for the Jumbos was against the No. 16 host Bears, and Tufts looked exhausted having just played a five-set marathon just minutes prior.
The Bears were able to hit at a .337 clip for the match, as Tufts block only got to five attacks on the match. The Jumbos played well defensively, posting a 35-33 edge in digs, but the Bears efficiency offensively was the difference.
First-year
Maiwenn Kamdje had a breakout performance on the right side, as she finished with 12 kills on 22 attacks while hitting .364. Gray recorded eight more kills on 17 swings (.353), and Liu tallied 21 assists, two aces and seven digs.
Whisenant also added nine digs, and fellow newcomer
Matsa Shi recorded four digs in the back row.
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Tufts (2-2) will return to the Eastern Time Zone to take on Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. in non-conference play.
--JUMBOS--
