MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - UMBC held on to win a thrilling five-set contest on Sunday afternoon at the Country Roads Challenge, defeating West Virginia 3-2.
The Retrievers came out of the gate firing, winning the first two sets and taking a 15-7 lead in the third set, but West Virginia rallied back to win the third and fourth sets, forcing a tie-breaking fifth set.
UMBC won the race to five, taking a 5-4 lead as Izzy Ostvig set up
Alissa Grant for the kill. West Virginia would take the next three points to lead it 7-5, but UMBC punched back with four straight, getting an ace from Ostvig to take an 8-7 lead before
Grace Larrivee and
Hannah Dobbs combined on a block to make it 9-7.
Tied 10-10, Larrivee added a kill to put the Retrievers back on top before
Claudia Llamas and Grant added another block to give UMBC a 12-10 lead.
Jalynn Brown's 17th and final kill of the night pushed the Retrievers ahead 13-11 just moments later, before WVU tied it up at 13 apiece. An attack error and a violation leading to a
Dasia Johnson service ace closed out the match for the Retrievers.
After seven kills in a three-set sweep yesterday, Brown followed it up with a 17-kill effort, hitting .282 for UMBC. Dobbs tallied her first double-double of the season, totaling 12 kills and 11 digs in the match. Ostvig stuffed the stat sheet, handing out 39 assists, adding four kills, contributing to eight of UMBC's 16 blocks, and totaling eight digs. Grant finished the match with seven kills and contributions to 10 blocks, making one solo stuff and logging nine block assists.
UMBC added 10 aces in the match, getting four from Johnson, two each from Ostvig and Dobbs, and two from
Molly Penn. Reigning America East Defensive Player of the Year
Hannah Howard added 20 digs and six assists in the match. The Retrievers out-hit West Virginia .197 to .179.
UMBC returns to action in Buffalo, N.Y. on Friday, taking on the University of Buffalo.
