Nov. 24, 2007
LONG BEACH, Calif.--After taking a game off No. 8 Florida on Friday night, the Yale volleyball team was riding high. The Bulldogs carried that momentum into Saturday, and almost got an impressive victory to show for it. In the end however, it was UC Santa Barbara (13-18) that made the big plays to defeat Yale (16-10) 30-20, 25-30, 20-30, 30-28, 15-13 Saturday afternoon at Walter Pyramid in the Bulldogs' final match of the Baden Thanksgiving Classic.
"I'm very proud of the way we played this weekend," Head Coach Erin Appleman said. "It would've been nice to come home with a win, but we played hard and fought well against three very good teams. Overall, this trip was a very positive experience for our program."
The Bulldogs took an early 4-1 lead to begin game one before the Gauchos charged back to tie it at 8-8. UC Santa Barbara scored the next two points to take a 10-8 lead before Yale scored the next three to claim an 11-10 advantage. UC Santa Barbara rallied for four straight points to go ahead 14-11, but the Bulldogs came right back to force a 14-14 deadlock. From there, the Gauchos took command. UC Santa Barbara went on a 6-0 run to open up a 20-14 lead. Yale tried to chip away, but didn't score consecutive points again the rest of the game. UC Santa Barbara took the opening game by a 30-20 count.
The Bulldogs went on a 6-1 run to break open a 6-6 tie early in game two. UC Santa Barbara responded with a 3-0 run of its own to cut the Yale lead to 12-10. The Gauchos eventually tied it at 18-18 and took a 21-20 lead on a Kasey Kipp kill. From there, the Bulldogs went on a 4-0 run to build a 24-21 advantage. After UC Santa Barbara tied it at 25-25, Yale scored the final five points of the game to claim a 30-25 win that evened the match at 1-1.
Game three was all Yale. The Bulldogs scored the first eight points of the game and never let the Gauchos get close. Yale's lead reached as many as 10 points when Alexis Crusey's block made it 18-8. The Bulldogs hit .450 (20 kills, two errors, 40 attacks) en route to a 30-20 win that gave them a 2-1 lead in the match.
There were five ties in game four. Yale took an early 3-0 lead and held the advantage throughout much of the game. UC Santa Barbara tied it at 6-6 before the Bulldogs scored the next two points to regain the lead. With Yale leading 22-18, the Gauchos rattled off the next four to tie it at 22-22. Yale went back in front, 24-22, but UC Santa Barbara again came back to force a tie at 25-25. After the score was tied again at 26-26 and 27-27, the Gauchos went on a two-point rally to gain a game point. Yale held off the first game point on Kali Nelson's kill, but Lauren McLaughlin smacked a kill on the next point to finish off UC Santa Barbara's 30-28 win that sent the match into the fifth.
Game five went back-and-forth. Neither side was able to open up a two-point advantage until the Bulldogs broke open a 4-4 tie with a block by Nelson and Laurel Johnson and a kill by Julia Mailander. Yale held that two-point edge until UC Santa Barbara came back to force a 9-9 tie. The Bulldogs went back in front on Crusey's kill, but the Gauchos took the momentum on Stacey Schmidt's kill and didn't give it back. That kill ignited a 4-0 run that gave UC Santa Barbara a 13-10 lead. The Gauchos reached match point at 14-11 and needed three tries before sealing a 15-13 win that capped a come-from-behind 3-2 victory.
Four Bulldogs tallied at least 15 kills. Crusey registered her third 20-20 double-double of the season with a match-high 21 kills and 24 digs. Julia Mailander recorded 18 kills and a career-high 21 digs. Johnson had 18 kills (twice as many as her previous career high) on .472 hitting. Kristen Wilk chipped in with 15 kills and four blocks. Ally Mendenhall dished out a career-high 67 assists and added 16 digs. Kelly Ozurovich notched a match-high 31 digs, her fourth 30-dig effort of the season. The Bulldogs hit .234 (82-26-239) as a team. Yale won 121 points in the match to UC Santa Barbara's 120.
McLaughlin led the Gauchos with 19 kills. She added 20 digs and four blocks. Schmidt tallied 16 kills, while Brett Quirarte added 14 kills and six blocks. Rebecca Saraceno posted 29 digs, nine kills and four aces for UC Santa Barbara. Leigh Stephenson had 28 kills and Caitlin Saxton recorded 19, as the Gauchos out-dug the Bulldogs 110-106. Dana Vargas recorded 62 assists, nine digs and five blocks. As a team, UC Santa Barbara hit .173 (70-35-225) in the match.
Ozurovich finished the campaign with 449 digs, the second-highest single-season total in Yale history. Crusey became the first Bulldog to record 300 kills in each of her first two seasons since all-time leader Rosie Wustrack in 1995-96. Mendenhall's total of 1,087 assists is the fifth-highest for a single season in school history. She now has 2,215 career assists, which places her seventh on the all-time list. Yale has finished with at least 16 wins in all five seasons of Appleman's coaching tenure. The team's overall record during that span is 86-38.
Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity