CHICAGO, Ill. – The Brandeis University volleyball team closed its 2019 season today with a 3-0 loss at the hands of the University of Rochester in the seventh-place match at the University Athletic Association tournament, held at the University of Chicago. The set scores were 26-24, 25-20, 25-13. Brandeis ends its season with a 4-23 record.
The first set saw nine ties and four lead changes. Brandeis owned a 24-21 lead, but UR staved off two set points and closed it out on a 5-0 run to take the first, 26-24. Brandeis took a 4-1 lead early in the second set, and the Judges were still ahead at 8-7 when the Yellowjackets went on 5-1 run to take the lead for good. UR would lead by as many as five points throughout the second set, but Brandeis climbed back within 20-18 on back-to-back kills from senior Emma Bartlett (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury). Rochester called timeout and answered by closing on a 5-2 run to take the second, 25-20. The Yellowjackets raced out to a 6-0 lead in the third set and never looked back, leading by as many as eight points early, then winning 10 in a row to put things away, 25-13, as they avenged a regular-season loss to the Judges.
Brandeis was paced by Bartlett, who registered a match-high 14 kills, with just five errors on 27 attempts for a .333 hitting percentage. Bartlett also added one service ace and five digs. She closes her Brandeis career with 987 kills, 10th on the Judges' all-time list. She also has 303 blocks, good for sixth all-time in school history. Her .204 hitting percentage is 13th all-time.
Other leaders in today's match for the Judges were junior Marissa Borgert (Blaine, Minn./Spring Lake Park), who had 16 assists and seven digs. Sophomore Maddie LaMont (El Dorado Hills, Calif. / Oak Ridge) matched Borgert for team-high with seven digs. Sophomore Avery Donovan (Portland, Maine/Deering) had three blocks.
Brandeis will lose just one starter from this year's squad in Bartlett, but the Judges will expect the return of several key pieces that were lost to injury this season as they look to return to the form that earned them fifth place in the conference in 2018.