3
Winner Wash. & Lee WLU 17-9,10-2 ODAC
2
Birmingham-So. BSC 17-6,11-3 SAA
Winner
Wash. & Lee WLU
17-9,10-2 ODAC
3
Final
2
Birmingham-So. BSC
17-6,11-3 SAA
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Wash. & Lee WLU 23 25 15 25 15 (3)
Birmingham-So. BSC 25 17 25 23 12 (2)
3
Winner Wash. & Lee WLU 18-9,10-2 ODAC
0
Oglethorpe OU 13-10,7-7 SAA
Winner
Wash. & Lee WLU
18-9,10-2 ODAC
3
Final
0
Oglethorpe OU
13-10,7-7 SAA
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Wash. & Lee WLU 25 25 25 (3)
Oglethorpe OU 20 23 20 (0)
VB_Celebrate_2022

Game Recap: Volleyball |

Volleyball Takes BSC in Five and Sweeps Oglethorpe at the Emory Invitational

ATLANTA, Ga. - The Washington and Lee University volleyball team notched a pair of wins on the opening day of the Emory Invitational with a 3-2 thriller over Birmingham-Southern and a 3-0 sweep against the Stormy Petrels of Oglethorpe on Friday evening. 

Game One Recap:

Washington and Lee (17-9) took down 'Southern (17-6), who is receiving votes in the AVCA Division III Coaches' Poll, 23-25, 25-17, 15-25, 25-23, 15-12 after falling behind 2-1 through three sets.

The first match of W&L's weekend slate was a competitive one, the opening set featured both squads hitting above 0.250 percent. Despite three tied scores, the Panthers took the lead at 2–1 early and strung together pairs of points until doubling up on the Blue and White, 10-5. BSC held on for the 25-23 win. 

WLU bounced back with a commanding 25-17 win in the second series. Southern's offense struggled to find a groove which resulted in 10 errors, four of which were at the service line, and a 0.054 hitting percentage while W&L recorded 11 kills on 34 attempts (0.206). At the net, the Generals knocked down seven blocks, Riley Debiec (Potomac, Md. / Bishop O'Connell) recorded four block assists with Avery Myers (New York, N.Y. / Poly Prep Country Day School) put down a solo shot and three assists.

Trailing 5-2, the Blue and White went off on eight straight points to then double up on the Panthers 10-5, a 7-1 run going the other way gave the advantage back to BSC. 

A Lillie Holcomb (Greensboro, N.C. / Western Guilford) kill would make lead short-lived and rattled the Panthers, her kill sparked five attack errors in a row, the 17-12 lead was enough for W&L to march to 25-17 win and a 1-1 match score. 

BSC took the third set 25-15 thanks to an incredible 0.556 attack percentage, 16 kills on 27 attempts to just one error. 

W&L needed to win out to secure the match and battled off four lead changes and 10 tied scores to a set one reversal in favor of the Blue and White 25-23. Late in the set, BSC grabbed four points and a 22-21 lead but Myers interrupted the streak with a kill, set up by Ashley Webb (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Westlake). Kills from Debiec and Sydney Heifner (Nashville, Tenn. / Harpeth Hall) gave McKenna Cook (Powell, Ohio / Olentangy) an opportunity for the set point with a service ace. 

The decisive fifth set was a nail-biter with nine ties and four lead changes. Southern led 8-7 to switch the bench and the score would be tied just once more at 10-10. Two pairs of back-to-back W&L points set up a match-winning kill from Maggie McSwain (Atlanta, Ga. / Westminster), 15-12. 

The Generals recorded 17 blocks: McSwain and Debiec tallied eight each and Myers added five.

Webb racked up 48 assists and Caroline Gard (Naperville Ill. Benet Academy) dug out 20 attacks. Heifner and Cook added 16 and 15 digs, respectively.  

Game Two Recap: 

Washington and Lee (18-9) stayed on the court and took down Oglethorpe (13-10) in three sets, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20. 

The Generals continued their attack proficiency with sets of 0.294, 0.200, and 0.400 attack percent through the three series over the Stormy Petrels. 

The Blue and White fought off 19 lead changes and 28 tied scores to come away with the winning sweep. 

In the opening set, runs of three, four and five straight points brought the score to 21-17 in favor of W&L. Oglethorpe sprinkled in three points over the last seven. After a service error in the 24th point, Debiec was set up for the set-point kill. Holcomb tallied five kills on five attempts in the opening set with a block assist; she led the team with 5.5 points. 

In the second stanza, five consecutive W&L points set up a 9-6 lead, the Stormy Petrels rallied back with a run of six, four kills and a pair of W&L attack errors, that gave OU a 14-12 advantage. The score was tied 16, then at 17,18, 22 and 23-23.  Debiec grabbed the second set-point after another OU error at the service line to own the 25-23 set.  

The third set was full of 11 multi-point runs and ties at 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 9-, 11- and 14- all. Six W&L tallies, which included two service aces from Debiec, gave the Blue and White the lead for good, 20-14. The Generals recorded five of the final seven points, four kills and a Webb service ace, to win the second match of the day with a 25-20 win. 

Heifner added 15 kills to her night's total with Debiec recording 10. From the service line, Allie Buchholz (Portland, Ore. / Jesuit) served up four aces, Debiec added three. 

Webb set up 33 assists and Gard counted 18 digs with Buchholz adding nine.


UP NEXT


The Generals will wrap up the regular season tomorrow and take on No. 8 Berry at 10 a.m. at the Emory National Invitational. 

The ODAC tournament slate and seed pairings will be announced later this weekend.
 
--GENERALSSPORTS.COM--
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