Bulldogs Get Back on Track With Sweep of Big Red
ITHACA, N.Y. — The last six times that
the Yale volleyball team has suffered a loss, it has bounced back
to win its next match. Friday night at Cornell was no different, as
the Bulldogs rebounded from a tough five-set loss to Penn last
weekend by sweeping Big Red by set scores of 26-24, 25-23 and
25-14. Senior Cat Dailey led all players with 12 kills. Freshman
Kerry Clavadetscher dished out a match-best 34 assists, and junior
libero Kelly Ozurovich picked up 25 digs in the three-set
match.
With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 13-2 overall and 3-1 in the
Ivy League. Yale has won nine consecutive road matches against
Ancient Eight competition, dating back to the 2007 season. Cornell
falls to 5-11 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy League with the loss.
Dailey complimented her 12 kills with nine digs. Freshman Haley
Wessels had 10 kills in the contest, and senior Laurel Johnson
added eight. Senior Alexis Crusey had six kills, senior captain
Julia Mailander tallied four and Clavadetscher picked up two kills
from the setter slot. Sophomore Bridget Hearst added one kill to
round out the Yale attack.
As a team, the Bulldogs hit .239 (43-15-117) for the match, while
Big Red swung at a .139 (33-16-122) clip. Yale won the blocking
battle, 9-6.5, led by four apiece from Crusey, Johnson and Wessels.
The Bulldogs landed seven service aces compared to three by
Cornell.
The match was a back-and-forth battle from the opening serve, as
the two squads split the first 18 points to a 9-9 deadlock. At that
point, the Bulldogs rattled off four straight points, punctuated by
an ace from sophomore Katie Cordell, to run the score to 13-9 and
force a Big Red timeout. Cornell controlled the next spurt of
action, putting together a 5-2 stretch to cut the lead to a single
point at 15-14. After a Yale timeout, Big Red took the next three
points to reclaim the lead at 17-15. The Bulldogs responded with
another run, as Crusey smashed a kill and a pair of blocks to give
Yale an 18-17 advantage. Big Red would win the next rally to tie
the set for the ____th time, and the deadlock would hold up to
23-23. Dailey’s fourth kill of the frame gave Yale a
set-point opportunity at 24-23, but the Bulldogs failed to cash in
as Cornell knotted the score once again at 24-24. A kill from
Johnson gave Yale its second set point chance, and Johnson and
Crusey ended the set with a big block to give the Bulldogs a 26-24
victory.
Yale hit .186 (15-7-43) in the set, while Big Red swung at a .220
(15-6-41) clip. Each team hammered home four blocks, and Yale
dropped in three service aces to Cornell’s one.
The Bulldogs carried their momentum into set two, taking five of
the first six points to grab an early 5-1 lead. Cornell would
answer in a big way, however, with a 7-0 spurt to take an 8-5 lead
and force Appleman to call her first timeout. Big Red would lead by
as many as six points, 16-10, before Yale began to come back. The
Bulldogs cut the lead back down to one point at 17-16, but Big Red
took the next two rallies to build the lead back up to three points
at 19-16. Kills from Clavadetscher and Johnson then brought Yale
back to within a point at 19-18 and forced a Cornell timeout. The
Bulldogs took the next point out of the stoppage to tie the score
for the first time since it was 5-5, but Big Red then claimed three
of the next four rallies to take a 22-20 advantage. With Cornell
closing in on set point, Yale responded to tie the score at 22-22.
The deadlock held to 23-23, when a Big Red attack error gave the
Bulldogs a set-point chance, leading 24-23. After Big Red took its
second timeout of the frame, Crusey and Wessels teamed up on a
block to end the set with Yale taking a 25-23 decision and a 2-0
edge in the match.
Set three was a return to the back-and-forth nature of the opening
frame, as the squads dueled to a 5-4 tally in favor of Big Red.
Yale then put together a 5-1 run to take a 9-6 lead, the first lead
of more than two points in the set, and force a Cornell timeout.
The spurt would continue to 7-1 after the stoppage, giving the
Bulldogs a five-point edge at 11-6. The five-point cushion held up
to 15-10, at which point a Hearst kill and an ace by Ozurovich give
Yale a 17-10 edge and forced a Cornell timeout. The lead grew all
the way to 11 points at 24-13 as the Bulldogs attempted their first
match point.
Cornell was led offensively by nine kills from Deveney Pula.
Jordan Reeder doled out 23 assists, and libero Megan Mushovic had a
team-best 16 digs.
The Bulldogs are back in action tomorrow afternoon, as they
continue the Ivy League slate with a 5 p.m. contest at
Columbia.
report filed by Drew M. Kingsley, Yale Sports Publicity
