Gibbons Hits .538 and Grabs Team-Best 14 Digs

HANOVER, N.H. -- The 14-game Ivy League season can be a marathon - and tonight the Bulldogs picked up a step in the race.

Yale came out aggressive and played like the defending Ivy League champs in a 3-0 road win at Dartmouth. The Bulldogs have started the season with three straight conference road matches and improved to 2-1 in the Ivy League.

The victory tied Yale with the Dartmouth in the standings.  Dartmouth opened their season with home wins over Harvard and Brown. The Bulldogs have two more road games next weekend at Penn and Princeton before playing the next five Ivy games at home.  

"It always important to play well on the road," Yale head coach Erin Appleman said.  "We did that tonight and picked up a nice win."  

Mollie Rogers continued to be Yale's go-to hitter, striking for a season-high 21 kills with a .340 hitting percentage. Maya Midzik completed a solid weekend with a 10-kill, two-block effort after her 15 kills last night.

Kaitlyn Gibbons added eight kills, hit .538 and came up with a team-high 14 digs.  

Maddie Rudnick added 13 digs, while Kelsey Crawford had 35 assists and 12 digs.  

After falling behind 12-10 in the first set, the Bulldogs turned up the dial and went on a 14-5 run. Kelly Johnson and Midzik notched consecutive kills to tie the set, and then Yale took off.

Yale (6-6, 2-1) scored 12 of the next 17 points. Rogers blasted five kills during the run, which was capped by a kill from Claire Feeley and an ace from Crawford.

Feeley and Crawford kept the Bulldogs in control with kills to start the second set.  Dartmouth was forced to play from behind the entire set.

Every time the Big Green tried to make a run, Midzik and the Bulldogs had an answer.  Midzik went for six kills in the set, including a smash to make it 10-6 and force a Dartmouth timeout.

The Big Green scored the next two points, but Midzik came through again. Her kill gave Yale an 11-8 lead and kickstarted a 10-5 run, which was capped by a kill from Gibbons, to give Yale a 20-13 lead.

"Maya and Kaitlyn really played well tonight and gave us a lift when we needed it," Appleman said.

Yale took control of the third set early with a 7-1 run.  Midzik broke a 4-4 tie with two straight kills and Dartmouth followed with two errors.  Dartmouth grabbed the next point before Rogers belted two straight kills to give Yale a 10-5 lead and force a Big Green timeout. 

Dartmouth cut the deficit to 17-15, before Rogers came up with another kill to give Yale the serve.  Midzik all but ended the night with serves leading to six straight Yale points. It started with a kill from Gibbons and eventually two more from Rogers.

Yale travels to Penn next Friday at 7 p.m., and takes on Princeton the next day at 5 p.m.

Report filed by Ernie Bertothy, Yale Sports Publicity