ATLANTA — The No. 14-ranked Southwestern volleyball team opened the NCAA Tournament with a brilliant defensive performance, holding the Washington and Lee Generals to under .100 hitting in a 3-1 (25-11, 25-23, 13-25, 25-20) victory.
Southwestern recorded a season-high 12 blocks, anchored by middle blockers Riley Brantley and Andie Valenzuela. They each had nine kills and combined for 11 block assists to set the tone in holding Washington and Lee to a .060 hitting percentage.
"I thought our blocking game went really well. We had 12 blocks, which is one of the best days we've had," libero Ali Grona, who led the Pirates with 19 digs, says. "And then the second line of defense, our back row, really held it down today and did our job."
With every member of the Southwestern making their NCAA Tournament debut, the Pirates showed they were right at home in the high-stakes match, jumping out to a 25-11 victory in the first set, holding the Generals to a -.108 hitting percentage.
"The first round of the NCAA Tournament can be a little gnarly. You can be the best team in the world and have a tough outing, or be the worst team in the tournament and really get after it," Southwestern head volleyball coach Don Flora says. "We did a nice job starting in the match and holding them to low offensive production. Holding them to under .100 throughout the match was important. That's a valuable number for us."
Southwestern opened the second set with three consecutive attack errors and a service error, falling behind 5-2 early. Washington and Lee rode the momentum to a 24-18 lead, with Val Sokolow and Sydney Heifner finding a rhythm with a combined eight kills in the set. The Pirates battled back with a 5-0 run before Heifner ended the match with a kill.
"There's that adrenaline drop where a team is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, we've got it going in the first set, and then there's this lull where we take a deep breath instead of going harder," Flora says.
"I think we needed to establish urgency," senior outside hitter Lauren Crabtree adds. "We lacked that in the second game. The adrenaline rush dropped, and we needed to establish that every-point-matters urgency."
Southwestern responded in the next set by booming 16 kills on a .333 hitting percentage led by All-SCAC First Team selection Emma White's five kills in the set. Crabtree and Valenzuela added three each.
"We had a couple of attackers who needed to just hit their way through instead of overthinking our way through it," Flora explains. "We're so analytical, which is great. We have our volleyball IQ at a high level with a lot of experience from our pin hitters. We're athletic and strong there, so sometimes we need to punch our way out instead of thinking our way out. Once we started to punch back, it set the tone. When we put up a [25-13] win in that third set, that's a good way to seal the deal."
Southwestern closed the match with 20 kills on a .340 hitting percentage in the fourth set, led by Christina Kuras's five kills. Brantley also contributed four kills in the set.
Crabtree and White led Southwestern with 15.5 points each. Crabtree posted a team-high 14 kills on a .312 hitting percentage and three block assists. White added 12 kills and 17 digs with three block assists and two service aces.
With the win, Southwestern improves to 25-5. Southwestern advances and will play No. 12-ranked Berry (26-2) tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. CST.
