October 1, 2011

BOX 1 | BOX 2

St. Louis, Mo., October 1, 2011 – The No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team extended its unbeaten streak to 16-straight with a pair of sweeps over Carnegie Mellon University (25-23, 25-7, 25-17) and Brandeis University (25-12, 25-12, 25-19) at the first University Athletic Association (UAA) round robin of the season on Saturday, Oct. 1, in St. Louis, Mo.

Senior Lauren Budde paced the offense by tallying at least 15 kills in each of the three-set victories. She opened the day with 15 kills while hitting .522 against Carnegie Mellon and followed that up with an 18-kill performance, including 10 in the second set alone, against Brandeis.

Budde also came closer to becoming just the eighth student-athlete in program history to reach 1,000-career kills and digs. She recorded the 1,000th kill of her career against Concordia College-Moorhead on Sept. 17, and with 23 digs on Saturday sits just four shy of the 1,000-dig milestone.

Junior Kelly Pang also continued her ascent up the Washington University all-time digs list. She led the Bears with 14 digs against Carnegie Mellon and tallied eight more in the first set against Brandeis to increase her career haul to 1,492, which places her sixth in program history. Pang needs just 36 digs to move past Kathy Bersett (1987-90) for fifth-place in school history.

On the court, the opening set with Carnegie Mellon on Saturday morning proved to be Washington University’s toughest test of the day, but the Bears had several players step up and make clutch plays down the stretch to hold off Carnegie’s comeback attempt.

Washington U. led 21-16 late in the frame, but the Tartans came all the way back to take a brief 22-21 lead. Sophomore middle hitter Kaia Schwartz tied the score with her third kill of the set, and Budde made it 23-23 with her fifth strike. Budde and junior setter Marilee Fisher teamed up for a block to make it 24-23 in favor of the Bears, and Washington U. held on for the 25-23 win.

Behind a strong serving run from Pang there was no need for a dramatic finish in the second set, with Washington University jumping out to a 9-1 lead en route to a 25-7 win. Senior outside hitter Kristen Thomas tallied six kills on just seven swings to lead the Bears to an eight-point victory in the third.

Sophomore outside hitter Meghan Byrne finished the Carnegie Mellon match with eight kills while hitting .353 and Schwartz had seven kills and a .538 attack percentage. Fisher, who ranks second in the country in assists per set, had 36 assists.

While Budde recorded a Washington University season-best 18 kills against Brandies, Byrne chipped in nine kills without an error to hit .429, and also tied her career-high with seven digs. Sophomore Megan Odenthal came in at setter in the second and third sets and finished with 21 assists and five kills, and sophomore Tanya Marvi finished with a new career-high with 18 digs.

Washington U. (16-0, 2-0 UAA) continues competition at the first UAA round robin of the year on Sunday, Oct. 2, when it faces New York University in the Washington University Field House in St. Louis, Mo., at 12 p.m.