In their final regular season home match of the season, the Brandeis volleyball team lost to UMass Boston, ranked 18th in the country in straight sets 25-19, 25-14 and 25-19.
Brandeis kept up with UMass in the early stages of the first set with neither team able to win more than two consecutive points. The Beacons took a 10-8 lead on a service ace by junior setter Frana Burtness-Adams; however, the Judges responded with six of the next eight points. Behind a pair of kills from outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 and service aces from setter Yael Einhorn ’14 and outside hitter Susan Sun ’13, the Judges took a 14-12 lead, their largest lead of the match.
A Judges’ error halted their momentum and the Beacons took advantage and went on a 9-2 run. Sophomore outside hitter Corrine Porter and rookie middle hitter Kirsten Morrison had two kills each to highlight the run that gave UMass a 21-16 lead. The two teams traded the next five points before senior middle hitter Molly Ratigan closed the set out with back-to-back kills for the Beacons.
UMass Boston dominated in the next two sets, never trailing. The Beacons opened up early leads of 8-4 in the second set and 8-3 in the third set. The Judges were able to close within 10-9 in the second set, but two straight kills by UMass junior middle hitter Shannon Thompson halted the Judges’ momentum as UMass went on to close the second set on a 15-5 run. In the third set, the Judges trailed 16-9 to the Beacons but after a time out the Judges were able to cut the deficit to four on multiple occasions but could never close the gap further.
Hood set the pace for the Judges’ offense with 11 kills, her 15th match with double digit kills on the season. Outside Hitter Si-Si Hensley ’14 added eight kills and posted a .368 hitting percentage. Hensley also led the Judges with 12 digs, her sixth match of the season with at least 10 digs and Einhorn contributed 22 assists.
Thompson led UMass Boston with 18 kills, including eight kills in the third set alone. Ratigan had eight kills and four block assists. Senior setter Cassy Hanneman tallied 33 assists while junior libero Kayla Wilson had 16 digs.
The Judges dropped to 9-18 heading into the UAA tournament starting this Friday and the Beacons improved to 24-4 as they wait for the Little East tournament to begin.
