WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University volleyball team improved to 3-0 on the young season today with a pair of straight-set wins over Colby-Sawyer College (25- and Worcester State University. The Judges barely trailed in a pair of matches that lasted just over an hour each.

TEAM RECORDS

Brandeis, 3-0 / Colby-Sawyer, 1-3 / Worcester State, 0-3

HOW IT HAPPENED – COLBY-SAWYER (25-12, 25-12, 25-8)

• The Judges led wire-to-wire in the first and third sets, opening up leads of 5-1 and 4-1 respectively.
• The second set was back-and-forth over the first 12 points before Brandeis went on an 8-0 run that turned a 6-6 tie into a 14-6 lead thanks to four kills form first-year outside hitter Anna Ertischek (Montgomery, Texas / Lake Creek).
• The third set featured an 11-0 run on the serve of senior Stephanie Borr (Westfield, N.J. / Westfield) as the Judges delivered 10 kills and a service ace. Graduate student Sydney Bent (Raleigh, N.C. / Ransom Everglades School (Fla.) and senior Emerson White (Lexington, Ky. / Sayre) each had three kills in the string.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE – COLBY-SAWYER

• The Judges had a whopping .393 hitting percentage (42 K-9 E-84 TA), with seven different players registering multiple kills and hitting above .400.
• Bent led the way with 11 kills while adding three service aces and two block assists. She hit .318 for the match.
• Ertischek added seven kills at a .438 clip, while sophomore Lara Verstovsek (Houston, Texas / Episcopal) had six kills and a .417 percentage. Verstovsek also had two solo blocks and a service ace.
• Junior Ines Grom-Mansencal (Cincinnati, Ohio/Wyoming) had 31 assists, and classmate Ella Pereira (Redondo Beach, Calif. / Rolling Hills Prep) contributed 18 digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED – WORCESTER STATE (25-17, 25-17, 25-15)

• Though this match had the closest set scores of the weekend for Brandeis, they never trailed, and were only tied twice, 5-5 in the first set and 2-2 in the third.
• The biggest run of the first set came on the serve of Grom-Mansenecal, when the Judges won six points in a row to stretch a 10-8 lead to 16-8. Three different Judges had kills, and WSU committed three errors in the streak.
• Brandeis scored five of the first seven points of the second set and never looked back, leading by as many as seven points on a couple of occasions. Ertischek came up big in the set, with seven kills on 12 attempts.
• In the third, it was Borr with another strong service series, taking a 2-2 tie to a 7-2 lead, as the Lancers contributed four errors to the run. Six players had kills in the set, with Verstovsek and sophomore Arianna Jackson (Lewis Center, Ohio / Oletangy Orange) each pitching in three.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE – WORCESTER STATE

• Ertischek reached double-digit kills for the first time in her career, finishing with 10 and three errors in 17 attempts for a .412 hitting percentage.
• Bent added eight kills, while Verstovsek had seven. Each had two block assists and three services aces as well.
• Junior Rita Lai (Sugar Land, Texas / Clements) had six kills and a team-high three block assists.
• Grom-Mansenecal had 21 assists and seven digs, while Pereira had a match-high 11 digs.
• The Judges hit .273 as a team (40 K-16 A-88 TA), while holding Worcester State to .189 (25-11-74).

UP NEXT

• The Judges are on the road for the next three weeks, starting with matches at Emerson College next Thursday night at 6 p.m. and at Williams next Friday at 7 p.m.