Boston College Athletics
Boston College
0-3
Yale
1-0
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston College | 18 | 19 | 25 | 10 | 1 |
| Yale | 25 | 25 | 21 | 25 | 3 |
Volleyball Topped in Four at Yale
September 02, 2011 | Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2011
boxscore 
New Haven, Conn. –The Boston College volleyball team fell to the host, 25-18, 25-19, 21-25, 25-10, John J. Lee Amphitheater on the opening day of the Yale Invitational. Senior outside hitter Tsvetelina Dureva led the Eagles (0-3) with 12 kills and 17 digs to post her 10th career double-double – seventh most for BC since 2002.
The Bulldogs (1-0) were charged by Mollie Rogers (13 kills, 27 digs) and Erica Reetz (13 kills, 10 digs) in their season opener.
Sophomore setter Cagla Sen distributed 22 assists, adding seven digs, three blocks and a kill, while senior captain Brennan Clark provided 16 digs.
Junior captain Krystle Higgins powered the inside attack with eight kills on .333 hitting. Fellow middle hitters Alex Fitzmorris noted six kills and Melissa McTighe charted a career-best five kills and no errors on offense.
Freshman setter Kellie Barnum contributed seven assists, five digs and a pair of kills, while classmate Lauren Fields reached double-digit digs, 10, for the first time in her career.
Yale jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first, with junior Val Mattaliano putting away the first of three kills to get BC on the board. The Bulldogs continued to press and while the Eagles managed two more points on a block and kill over the next three plays, Boston College did not add to its tally until Sen delivered a kill and block assist with Higgins at 13-7.
Successful attacks from Barnum, Higgins, Dureva and McTighe strung together brief runs by Boston College, but Yale took the first set, 25-18.
Fitzmorris opened the second set with a kill, but the Bulldogs quickly took a 5-2 lead on a trio of kills and errors by both sides. Fitzmorris connected with Barnum again to spur 5-2 run by the Eagles. The middle hitter combined with Higgins on a block, before a few attacking errors were followed by a kill from Higgins and a block by Sen and Castle to even the match at seven.
Yale then jumped ahead by two on attack errors, but a service error and kill from McTighe helped the Eagles keep pace at nines, but despite kills from Fitzmorris, Dureva and Higgins the Bulldogs went on to win, 25-19.
Boston College took an early 4-2 advantage on the arms of Dureva and Fitzmorris to start the third, but the sides would go back-and-forth to 10-10. An attack error put the Eagles up by a point, but Mattaliano found the floor and Clark aced the Bulldogs to go up by three.
Rogers and Dureva traded kills before errors allowed Yale to even the set up, 16-16. Higgins connected on a pass from Sen and McTighe slammed home a ball hung out in the neutral to ignite BC to a win, 25-21.
Yale took a 5-1 lead to open the fourth, before BC called timeout to slow the momentum. A pair of attacks errors out of the break, followed by three kills from the Bulldogs pushed the score to 9-2, before Sen connected with Fitzmorris and Higgins to pull BC two points closer, 9-4.
Yale committed an attack error to give the next point to BC, but the Bulldogs took 10 of the next 11 points to stretch their lead to 19-6.
A service error spawned a brief Boston College run with kills from Dureva and McTighe, but Yale outlasted BC, 25-10, to take the match.
The Eagles will return Saturday to take on Utah at 1 p.m. and Colgate at 7 p.m. on day two of the Yale Invitational. Fans are invited to follow along with live stats provided by PrestoSports.
