Owls Grounded at Brandeis, 3-0

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Brandeis outside hitter Anna Ertischek (Montgomery, Texas) collected a game-high 13 kills as the Judges defeated Westfield State in straight sets (25-11, 25-21, 25-23) as part of the Brandeis Invitational on Friday afternoon from Waltham, Mass.

First-year Sydney Cummins (Nicholasville, Ky.) led the team with six kills as the Owls drop to 2-5 on the year with the loss. The Judges improve to 6-3 on the season.

Julia Dangel-Garcia (Ashland, Mass.) supplied 12 of the Owls 22 assists on the match. Chloe Schuld (Sycamore, Ill.) added a team-leading ten digs for Westfield.

Eritschek along with senior Lara Verstovsek (Houston, Texas) totaled 25 kills for the Judges with Verstovsek compiling 12 kills.

The Owls fell behind early in set one, surrendering eight of the first ten points to Brandeis with a kill from Kennedy Lily (Atlanta, Ga.) putting the Judges ahead, 8-2. Five straight points on the service game of Verstovsek opened up a ten-point lead as the Owls would get no closer than nine points for the remainder of the set.

In the second set, the Owls started off strong with a Siobhan Meyer (Long Island, N.Y.) kill advancing the Owls lead to 13-9. A Brandeis attacking error pushed Westfield to their largest lead of the set at 15-10, but later in the stanza, Brandeis would score six consecutive points to even the set at 16 apiece. Tied 20-20 late in the set, Allie Hill (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) delivered a service ace to give Westfield a temporary lead. 

Despite the effort, the Judges closed the set with five straight points with the final three initiated by Verstovsek kills.

The third set also went down to the wire, with the set tied at 21 each a Judges kill and block from Alina Nowakowski (Mansfield, Mass.) and Lilly opened up a narrow two-point advantage. Sarah Bingham (Reno, Nev.) and Morgan Dority (Walpole, Mass.) responded with a block of their own to draw within a point before Brandeis finished the match with consecutive kills from their leading attackers in Verstovsek and Eritschek.

Westfield State will be right back in action tomorrow from Waltham, Mass. as the Owls take on Roger Williams in a neutral game at 11:00 A.M.