For Immediate Release
October 10, 2009
Wellesley Sports Information
Courtesy Smith Sports Information
Wellesley Volleyball Falls to Vassar in Seven Sisters Championship
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Vassar went undefeated this weekend in capturing their 3rd Seven Sisters Tournament Championship. The Brewers won 9 straight sets against Elms College, Smith College, and defending tournament champion Wellesley College, whom Vassar lost to in the final round at the last Seven Sisters Tournament in 2007.
The first set started off with an impressive service ace from Wellesley's #8 Victoria Peng (Diamond Bar, CA; All-Tournament selection). This set the tone for the first portion of set 1, as Wellesley led by as much as 6 points in the early part of the game. However, Vassar finally found its fire and stormed back to tie the score at 9 points apiece. Set 1 would see 3 more ties before Vassar was finally able to put it away on a Wellesley net violation (25-20).
Set 2 was much the same, with 6 ties and 2 lead changes. Again, Vassar's hard hitting and strong blocking efforts were enough to overcome the scrappy style of defensive play from Wellesley. While the teams remained in close contention for the majority of the set, a streak of Wellesley errors late in the game proved costly, and they were not able to catch the Brewers in the final points of the match. Vassar's #12 Hilary Koenigs (Spokane, WA; All-Tournament selection) put a decisive end to set 2 with a monstrous block that rolled along the top of the net until finally settling on Wellesley's side to earn her team game point (25-21).
Set 3 proved to be the final set of the tournament, as Vassar opened up its largest lead in the match (10 points) in going on to win 25-15. While Vassar had an all-around solid performance, they shined at the net, tallying 9 team blocks over the course of their final match.
Vassar leaders in the match were #10 Amy Bavosa (Eastport, NY) with 9 kills, #7 Chloe McGuire (Davis, CA) with 11 digs, and #12 Hilary Koenigs with 25 assists and 10 digs. For Wellesley, #20 Elizabeth Campbell (Solona Beach, CA) and #10 Isabel Custodio (Powell, OH; All-Tournament selection) tallied 15 and 9 kills respectively, while #8 Victoria Peng had 22 assists and #2 Naomi Iwata (Seattle, WA) had 16 digs.