NEWARK, Del. — The Columbia volleyball team came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Delaware in five (25-20, 15-25, 21-25, 25-14, 15-10) Saturday afternoon at the Blue Hen Invitational. With the win, the Lions earned a share of the Blue Hen Invitational tournament title.
 
Columbia (3-3) used an 11-2 run to break a 9-all tie in the fourth set and force a deciding fifth. Delaware (5-4) jumped ahead 7-5 in the tiebreak, but the Lions answered with three straight points to lead at the changeover and made it four straight points on a kill by senior Luciana Del Valle. The Blue Hens fought back to tie the set at 10, but Columbia scored the final five points with the help of four combined kills from senior Lauren Wilkins and junior Chichi Ikwuazom to win its first five-set match of the season.
 
"I thought we stayed extremely poised, confident and in control of the game," head coach Allison Keeley said. "Our outsides bounced back nicely from how we started yesterday and there were terrific performances all around. It was fun to see."
 
Ikwuazom powered home a team-high 17 kills and hit .375 to lead the Columbia attack. The two-time All-Ivy First Team middle also came up with a match-high four blocks. Wilkins, who set a career-high with 13 kills in Friday's win over Marist, one-upped herself with 15 kills against the Blue Hens, including four on five attempts to seal the final set.
 
"Chichi is starting to get into a rhythm," Keeley added. "She's so explosive and it's tough to stop her. I also thought Lauren continued to show she can be a dependable outside."
 
Junior Kalie Wood delivered once more with a match-high 30 digs. It marked the libero's second career 30-dig match and was one off her career-high 31 from last September at LIU Brooklyn.
 
"Kalie has played well in every match and been extremely consistent," Keeley added. "She makes it really tough for the other team to get on runs.
 
Four Lions finished Saturday's match with double-figure digs – senior Luciana Del Valle and first-year Emily Teehan had 14 apiece while sophomore setter Audrey Cheng completed her second double-double of the season with 39 assists and 10 digs.
 
Columbia played to a big advantage in the service game, acing Delaware 13 times. Junior Grace Campbell tied her career-high with five while junior Rose Compton, Teehan and Wood had two apiece. Meanwhile, the Blue Hens aced Columbia just five times and were -3 on serve with eight serving errors.
 
Columbia held Delaware to .047 hitting and created the first bit of separation in the opening set with a 5-1 run to go up 16-11. Consecutive kills for Teehan helped the Lions maintain their five-point advantage and Delaware burned through its final timeout of the set after a Compton block made it 20-15. Columbia kept the momentum out of the timeout with another block by Compton and earned a plethora of set points after Teehan's first ace of the match increased the lead to 24-16. Wilkins converted after a mini-rally by UD with her set-high fifth kill.
 
Three early kills for Ikwuazom helped the Lions recover from a 4-1 deficit to begin the second, but the Blue Hens ran away with it to tie the match at a set apiece. They scored three straight with kills by Maria Bellinger and Bailey Pearlman to force a Columbia timeout at 11-7. Bellinger went on to lead the match with 19 kills. Nothing seemed to stop Delaware's momentum, as the home side completed an 11-0 run with a 22-9 lead before going on to win the set by 10.
 
Delaware kept the momentum rolling into the third. Columbia was forced into an early timeout after five straight points put it behind 9-3. The deficit grew to seven at 13-6 before Grace Campbell went on a service run to cut the lead back to four. Delaware came right back with the next three and increased its lead to nine points, 20-11, off a block by Pearlman and Sonja Vukosavljevic. Campbell went on another service run to try and get the Lions back in the match, but it was too little too late the home side went up a set.
 
Columbia settled down in the fourth and scored three straight points with the help of an ace by Wood to force Delaware into an early timeout. The Blue Hens scored the next two points to tie it up, 9-9, but it was all Columbia from there. A kill by Compton marked the start of an 11-2 run that resulted in a 20-11 Lions lead. Campbell, Teehan and Compton all recorded aces through the run and the Lions hit .370 in the set with 13 kills and five aces to reach the fifth, where they polished off the comeback.
 
Columbia heads back to New York for its home-opening doubleheader on Friday. The Lions will host St. Francis College at 2 p.m., followed by Fordham at 6 p.m. Both games will air on the ESPN family of networks.

WATCH ON ESPN 
After the Ivy League announced its partnership with ESPN, all home and Ivy League volleyball matches are scheduled to be played on the ESPN+ this fall. To sign up for ESPN+ for as low as $4.99/month or $49.99/annually, and catch all the action this season click here.