WORCESTER, Mass. — The Columbia volleyball team won its first two sets of the 2018 season, but Rhode Island came all the way back to knock off the Lions in five (27-25, 25-22, 20-25, 23-25, 11-15) Friday evening at the Holy Cross Invitational.
Columbia (0-1) rallied from deficits in each of the first two sets to take command of the match. Rhode Island (1-4) bounced back by taking the third and held off a Columbia rally in the fourth to force the deciding set. The Lions led 10-9 in the tiebreak until URI scored five straight to earn a handful of match points and complete the comeback.
"We played well but we just kind of died a little in the fourth set and weren't able to rebound," said head coach Allison Keeley, who made her Columbia coaching debut Friday. "For a start, I thought we played well for a new team in a new system. We were consistent with passing and our first-years played exceptionally well."
First-year Emily Teehan impressed with a double-double in her collegiate debut. The outside hitter posted a team-high 17 kills to go with 15 digs, a pair of aces and another pair of blocks. Rookie middle Isa Lamus showed just as much promise, hitting .421 with 10 kills and a match-high seven blocks.
Madeleine Casey began her senior season with her fourth collegiate start and made the most of it. The San Diego native put up three career-highs, tallying 16 kills, nine digs and six blocks.
"I thought Madeleine was exceptional for us," Keeley stated. "She hit nearly 50 balls and gave us some consistency passing alongside Kalie Wood."
Wood tallied 25 digs in her second season as Columbia's starting libero. Last season, Wood had five 20-dig matches, including a career-high 31 in five sets against LIU Brooklyn.
Sophomore setter Audrey Cheng recorded 44 assists on Columbia's 45 kills, adding 15 digs for her sixth career double-double. Senior outside Lauren Wilkins completed a quartet of Lions in double-figure digs with 11. She was a kill shy of a double-double.
The Lions rallied back from 17-11 down to claim the first set of the 2018 season. URI scored six straight points off Hazel Brown's serve to take its lead, but Columbia answered with seven of the next eight points that included three kills by Teehan. Her third kill of the run leveled the score at 18. The two sides battled toe-to-toe down the stretch, but the Lions pulled it out, 27-25, on Teehan's fifth kill of her first collegiate set.
Columbia climbed out of another hole in set two. URI jumped out to a 6-1 lead only to see junior Rose Compton go on a service run that included an ace and a block by senior Lauren Wilkins and first-year Isa Lamus to bring the score level at 6-6. Rhode Island halted the run momentarily, but the Lions rolled off five straight points with kills by Teehan and Casey to take ahold of the set, 19-14. The lead grew to 22-16 off another block by Lamus and Casey. Columbia held off a late rally, clinching the set off Teehan's 10th kill of the evening.
A tightly contested third set was taken late by Rhode Island to get the Rams on the board. A 6-2 run turned a 14-all set into a 20-16 URI lead. The Lions pulled back within a pair after Coach Keeley called for time, but URI used two straight kills to regain its four-point lead and eventually take the set by five.
The Rams put together the first significant run of the fourth, using two of Claire Chaplinsky's 15 kills to go up 17-12. Natale Zanellato extended the lead to 21-15 with two of her match-high 19 kills, but the Lions battled and pulled even at 23 thanks to two kills and a block by Casey to cap a 6-1 run. However, the Rams earned a fifth set, forcing the tiebreak on one of Claire Chaplinsky's 15 kills
A back-and-forth match saw just that in the fifth. The two sides played to five ties to reach 10-all, however, the Rams scored six of the final seven points to earn their first victory in five tries this season.
The Lions continue the tournament Saturday with two matches against Holy Cross and Drake. The doubleheader begins at noon against the host Crusaders.
