Columbia University
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
Dartmouth
Battle Falls Short In Five-Set Thriller With Conference Leader Dartmouth
10/17/2015 9:46:00 PM | Volleyball
NEW YORK – The Columbia women's volleyball team (5-11, 3-4 Ivy) battled in an intense five-set thriller against the current conference leader Dartmouth Big Green but were unable to come on top as it fell, 3-2, on Saturday night.
The Lions were able to take advantage of a combination of Darmouth mistakes in set one as the Big Green committed 10 attacking errors, five service errors and a pair of blocking errors to give the Lions a 25-21 victory.
Dartmouth came out attacking in the early goings of set two, however, taking a 7-2 lead before the Lions could battle back with a 9-4 run to tie things up at 11-11. From that point on the set remained close, but the Big Green was able to pull away and even the match up with a 25-20 win heading into the break.
The third set is where things got intense as both teams battled all the way to the final point. With the set tied at 24-24, Zoe Jacobs was able to step up and send home a kill to bring the Lions to set point, but the Big Green was able to even things up once again. Despite a back-and-forth battle, the Lions were unable to hold on as Dartmouth took set three, 30-28.
Columbia took the early lead in set four, but the Big Green was able to tie things up later in the set, 20-20, after a 4-0 run. Still tied at 25-25, Lanti Moye-McLaren was able to pick up an ace before a Dartmouth attacking error sealed a 27-25 victory to send the match into a deciding fifth set.
Trailing 6-5 in the final set, the Lions put the ball in the hands of Moye-McLaren once again as they went on a 4-0 run thanks to four-consecutive attacking errors by the Big Green to take a 9-6 advantage and force Dartmouth to use a timeout.
The Big Green was able to come out of the timeout with a 4-1 run to tie things up at 10-10, but back-to-back kills by Jacobs and Luciana Del Valle put the Lions back in front.
Still tied at 15-15, the set raged on as a Del Valle ace and Katarina Jovicic kill brought the Lions to set point, but Dartmouth was able to respond with three-consecutive points to take the match with a 20-18 fifth-set victory.
The Lions saw four different people finish with double-digit kills and four others finish with double-digit digs in the match. Senior Katarina Jovicic posted up nine blocks on the night, moving her into fourth place on the Columbia career blocking list with 236.
The Lions will return to action next week as they host Cornell in the annual “Dig Pink” game on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcasted live on the Ivy League Digital Network (ILDN).
