MEDFORD, MA (October 10, 2026) – The No. 25 Tufts women's volleyball team picked up a statement victory on Friday afternoon, sweeping No. 5 Colby College by scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-18 at Cousens Gym in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) action. The Jumbos took control with balanced hitting, steady serve receive and a big night at the net.

Tufts hit .297 for the match, compared to .139 for the Mules, and finished with 45 kills to Colby's 31. The Jumbos also won the battle at the net, totaling 6.0 blocks to Colby's 4.0, and held a 5-2 edge in service aces. Despite 20 ties and 13 lead changes, the Jumbos held a clear advantage in every set, hitting .265, .303 and .333 while holding Colby to .195, .156 and .057.

The first set was a back-and-forth affair early. Colby (18-3, 8-2 NESCAC) jumped out in front, and the Mules led 10-8 after a pair of kills by Brady Moseley. Tufts answered with a 4-0 run, with Hazel Nelson and Celina Savage recording kills to flip the score to 12-10 and force a Colby timeout. The Jumbos then built on that momentum, ripping off a 6-0 run on the serve of Dylan Whisenant that stretched the margin to 19-12 and forced another Colby timeout along the way.

Colby cut the deficit to 19-15, but Tufts called timeout and regrouped. Maiwenn Kamdje delivered a kill out of the break, and Tessa Fergusson added another to make it 21-15. A Fergusson and Savage block on Haley Beigh pushed the lead to 23-17, and after Colby tacked on two more, Fergusson and Savage closed the set with back-to-back kills for a 25-19 win. Kamdje had seven kills in the opening frame and hit .583.

Set two began with the two teams trading points, tied at 2-2 and again at 3-3 after a Kamdje kill off a Colby bad set. Tufts then began to separate. Claire Castor, Ellery Clark and Emma Heckman all contributed during a stretch that saw the Jumbos lead 9-5, capped by a Fergusson block on Marjorie Johnson and forcing a Colby timeout. Colby rallied to within 13-10, but Savage and Kamdje restored the cushion, and Tufts led 16-12 after Kamdje's kill.

The turning point came on Whisenant's serve. The junior libero rattled off six straight points, including three service aces, as Tufts ran from 16-12 to 22-12. Colby needed two timeouts to stem the tide. The Mules did claw back with a 4-0 run to get within 22-16, but Kamdje stopped the bleeding with a kill out of a Tufts timeout, and Savage fired the final kill, her fifth of the set on 7 swings without an error, to seal a 25-18 win.

The third set looked like it might get interesting. Colby jumped ahead 7-5 and then 10-7 on a service ace by Cyanne Jones, but the Jumbos stormed back. Fergusson stuffed Kendall Glover and then Beigh on back-to-back points, and Castor added a service run to even things at 10-10 and then take an 11-10 lead. Colby edged back in front 13-12, but the Jumbos took the lead for good at 14-13 and pulled away, getting kills from Nelson and Kamdje to lead 16-13.

The Mules chipped away, getting as close as 18-17, but Tufts finished the job. Clark and Fergusson combined for a kill at 21-17, and Castor added another to make it 22-17. Heckman then tallied back-to-back kills, both set up by Clark, to bring Tufts to 24-18, and Castor served out the set when Colby's Adriana Garcia hit the ball out of bounds. Tufts' hitters also held Colby to eight kills and six errors in the set (.057), with Fergusson tallying three solo blocks.

Kamdje led the Jumbos' attack with a match-high 14 kills while hitting .400 on 30 swings with just two errors. Castor, a do-it-all performer, notched 10 kills and nine digs, hit 14 serves without an ace but served up the final points of the match, and was nearly perfect in serve receive with a .929 reception percentage. Savage had a terrific night, adding nine kills while hitting .529 and chipping in a block assist to finish with 9.5 points.

Fergusson was a force at the net, totaling 10.0 points on five kills, four solo blocks and two block assists. Nelson added four kills while hitting .667, and Heckman had three kills and a block assist. Rianna Liu orchestrated the offense with 25 assists and 12 digs, and Clark added 10 assists. Whisenant finished with four aces and a team-high 15 digs, while Becca DePencier Pinero (15 receptions) and Amanda Freehill (13 receptions, 7 digs, 1 ace) anchored the serve-receive.

Colby was led by Garcia, who totaled eight kills while hitting .353 and added a solo block for 9.0 points. Moseley chipped in seven kills and a match-high 18 digs, and also handled 16 receptions. Libero Reese Loyd paced the White Mules with 20 receptions without an error and added 12 digs and four assists, while Anaya Francois posted 11 digs and 16 receptions. Gabby Grujic had 11 assists, and Sydney DeProfio added eight assists. Jones tallied three kills and an ace, and Glover chipped in a kill, a block solo and a block assist.

Colby finished with 56 digs, one more than Tufts, but 16 attack errors and just a .139 hitting percentage proved too much to overcome. The White Mules also managed only a 44%, 37% and 40% sideout rate across the three sets, compared to 57%, 52% and 55% for the Jumbos. 

Tufts (17-7, 7-3 New England Small College Athletic Conference) takes on Bowdoin College at 2 p.m. Saturday in the regular season finale for both teams. 

--JUMBOS--