ATLANTA, Ga. - The Washington and Lee University volleyball team grabbed two sets off No. 8 Berry College (Ga.) before falling 3-2 to conclude the Emory National Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
The Generals (18-10), who went 2-1 on the weekend after sweeping the competition last night, put themselves in a position to defeat the nationally ranked Vikings (20-3) in three sets. The W&L squad opened up the morning match with 25-20 and 25-23 wins but BC rallied to take the next three sets and closed out the match on top of the scoreboard.
No strangers to five-set series, the Blue and White have played in 12 this season and forced BC into five sets for just the fifth time during the Vikings' regular-season campaign. Berry won the match in the three consecutive sets on 25-20, 25-15 and 15-6 scores.
The Generals were close to making the sweep, and were able to fight off a 9-point deficit at 18-9. WLU strung together back-to-back points on four occasions and forced a sideout just after one tally for Berry on the last seven points. W&L ran out of time to complete the comeback in the third set.
BC put together dominate performances on the ensuing fourth and fifth sets to steal the win from the Blue and White.
The Generals hit about 0.200 in the first three sets but lost the offensive magic in the last two with just 5 and four kills registered, respectively.
Sydney Heifner (Nashville, Tenn. / Harpeth Hall), who was named to the Emory National Invitational All-Tournament team, recorded 17 kills on Saturday to add to her weekend. She totaled 50 kills and 35 digs over the course of the three matches in Atlanta to earn the distinction.
Ashley Webb (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Westlake) set up 42 assists and broke the 3,000 career assists mark on fifth point for W&L in the final set on Saturday, a set to
Lillie Holcomb (Greensboro, N.C. / Western Guilford) for the kill and 3,001 career assists on Webb's resume.
Caroline Gard (Naperville, Ill. / Benet Academy) dug out a team high 17 attack attempts. Heifner and Allie Buchholz (Portland, Ore. / Jesuit) notched double-digit digs as well, 14 and 12, respectively.
UP NEXT:
The Generals claimed the third seed in the 2022 ODAC Volleyball Tournament following the completion of the conference schedule earlier this evening.
Virginia Wesleyan University claimed the top spot with an 11-1 record through the league slate. Averett University, Randolph-Macon College and the Generals found themselves in a three-way stalemate with ODAC records of 10-2. Averett defeated both the Yellow Jackets and Blue and White in head-to-head matchups to earn the No. 2 seed.
One of the Generals' five set wins came over Randolph-Macon on October 12 to break the tie between the two and were awarded the third position to guarantee home-court advantage for the quarterfinals on Wednesday, November 2.
The Blue and White will host No. 6 University of Lynchburg, the match is tentatively scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start. Finalized details will be communicated via generalssports.com and odaconline.com.
-Generalssports.com-
