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Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.

WVolleyball slams Emmanuel 3-0

Published: September 15, 2006
Section: Sports


The Brandeis womens volleyball team improved on its already impressive record of 3-1 with a victory last night against the Saints of Emmanuel College. The team, now 4-1, came from behind in each set last night to beat Emmanuel (0-2) in three straight games, making up for a loss at Emmanuel last year.

In the first game of the night, the Saints took an early 7-2 lead, but then fell into a small slump and the Judges were able to come back and tie the game at 8-8. With the game tied at 13-13, Violette Ruggiero 09 took the serve. Her three consecutive points put Brandeis up 16-13 and the team did not look back from there. Piera Carfagno 10 put together a string of nine straight points and the Judges were able to close out the game with a 17-4 finish to win the game 30-17.
The start of the second game also looked bleak for Brandeis with Emmanuel taking an early 9-7 lead. Then Katie Wrynn 08 served six points to give the Judges the lead. At that point, the Saints were forced to take a timeout. Out of the timeout, Wrynn won three more points to give Brandeis a 16-9 lead. Another strong finish gave Brandeis a 30-22 win in game two and an overall two games to nothing lead in the match.

The third and final game of the night also happened to be the closest. Emmanuel took a six point lead mid-way through the game. The Judges stepped up to the challenge and went on a 12-3 run to take the lead 24-21. Brandeis was able to end the game with a strong finish on an ace by captain Shannon Trees, 07. Head Coach Michelle Kim explained the rough quality of the sweep,

Ashley [Powers 08] is injured right now. But Katie [Wrynn] did a good job in there. She went in for Ashley, she hasnt played the right side since last season, so just to step in in a completely different position is a tough thing for her and also for the players to get used to have someone who hasnt played that position play with them. Definitely plays a factor, but they worked well and made it happen.

Lorraine Wingenbach 09 played a strong game with 15 kills and a .428 hitting percentage. Wingenbach also had a team high 8 digs on the defensive end. Carfagno continued her strong play from the tournament with 2 blocks, 5 aces and 9 kills while Ruggiero finished the night with 32 assists and 3 aces.

Prior to this match, Brandeis came out strong in the Williams Invitational over the weekend, starting off with a Day 1 split by sweeping Wesleyan 3-0 (30-24, 30-27, 30-28) before falling on the wrong end of a sweep against Williams 0-3 (27-30, 22-30, 22-30). Wingenbach had a double-double in the winning effort with 13 kills and 10 digs while Becca Schwartz 09 tallied 9 aces. In the losing effort, Trees followed up her 15 digs in the previous match with 18 and the rookie tandem of Bridget McAllister 10 and Carfagno made their presence felt in the middle with a combined 11 blocks.

In day two Brandeis roared through, defeating Smith 3-1 (30-21, 25-30, 30-20, 30-22). Wingenbach had a double-double with 17 kills and 16 digs, Schwartz led the defense with 12 digs and McAllister contributed with 12 kills and 3 blocks.

Unfortunately, it was their last match of the tournament as a power failure forced the cancellation of their final match against Connecticut College. Taking all-tournament honors for Brandeis was Carfango, who finished her first tournament with 24 kills, 6 aces and 3 blocks. The progress made has left Coach Kim feeling good about her squad. Were just a young group and were a much more talented group than we were last year. It is just a matter of bringing it together.

Brandeis is in action next Tuesday at 7 p.m. when they travel to take on Eastern Nazarene College.