Albany, NY - Williams College (3-2) had a clean sweep over Russell Sage College (6-4), to open this weekend's Union/Russell Sage Crosstown Challenge.
The first set started off great for Williams. The Ephs opened strong with two 4-point runs bringing the score to a confident lead 8-1. However, the Gators themselves managed to acclimate 8 quick points, 3 by Eph errors and 3 by aces, promptly bringing the score up to an even 9-9. Later, both teams began an exchange of points, but the Ephs coordinated to pull off a 6 point run, 5 of which consisted of kills, to shut down the Gators. This momentum burst was spectacular, as it was not due to the Gators' misplay, who had been playing very scrappy and creating intense rallies throughout the set, but instead it was the Ephs perfectly executing every component of their game and continuously knocking down the Gators' defense. At Williams' 23rd point, Kami Israelski had a beautiful bump-set to Keely Campuzano, who got a powerful open cross-court kill, and the set was then shortly won 25-20.
The start of the second set, the Ephs directly went on a 5-point run. In the 5th point, Keely Campuzano executed a perfect tip which landed right in between the double-block and a back row defender. Kami Israelski achieved an ace in the back corner, and Morgan Daetz had a stunning one-armed dig from right under the pole that later resulted in a kill. In this set, any hope of a Gators comeback was completely shut down by Williams' dominance. For every point the Gators made, Williams had two, swiftly and skillfully performed plays bringing the set 20-10. Williams' blocking paired with its overwhelming offense generated the momentum to shut out any opportunity for the Gators to have a competitive offense. The Ephs kept dominating, and won the set 25-10; by the second set, Williams had 32 kills (16 in each set) while the Gators had only 8.Â
The third set was another great performance by the Ephs. The Gators were performing much more cohesively and executing more scrappy plays, yet at the top of the third set , Williams once more pulled away with a 5-point run. Dylan Fulcher Melodie did a great job at picking up many of the scrappy balls from the back row, which allowed the setting up of an aggressive and consistent offense. In another spectacular play, Morgan Daetz reached over the Eph bench to save a shanked ball and secure the 19th point. The Gators hadn't been able to recover in the match when the Ephs gained momentum, and the third set ultimately finished 25-15. One thing Williams had done phenomenal in the match today was persevering through every rally while, most importantly, not losing energy. Even though they were dominating in set scores, the Gators didn't just hand them free points from errors. Both teams had the same amount of errors, but Williams had more than 3 times the kills, showing how much of a powerful offensive team the Ephs have this year.Â
Eph head coach Christi Kelsey had these comments on the game, "Sage is a very scrappy team and made us work for a lot of points. I thought our team did a really nice job of executing the fundamentals and staying focused from point-to-point, especially after the first set. Overall, we keep having the chance to learn more about ourselves as a team with each match we play and we are excited about all of the pieces we have growing together!"
The Ephs will be back tomorrow, playing Union College at 11:00 AM EST and New Paltz at 1:00 PM EST in a doubleheader in Schenectady, NY.
