Blue Hens Make Statement with Sweep of Charleston

Monday, September 30

Newark, Del.

6:30 p.m.

University of Delaware

10-4, 2-1CAA

College of Charleston

3-11, 0-2CAA

Charleston

DELAWARE

Photo by: Mark Campbell

9/30/2019 9:05:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Bellinger paces Delaware with 19 kills while the team tallies 22 rejections

NEWARK, Del. – After a tight first set, the Delaware volleyball team handled its business Monday night with a sweep of Charleston by set scores of 31-29, 25-22 and 25-17 at the Bob Carpenter Center to move above .500 in CAA play.

Senior Maria Bellinger was nearly lights out, going 19-1-53 to hit .340 to go along with six digs, two blocks and a service ace. She did not make an error until her 48^th swing of the night to pace the Blue Hens.

"That was a great team performance," said head coach Sara Matthews. "I thought we were locked in from the first point and really executed our game plan. Our block was so effective and produced some big points for us tonight."

The first set was a back-and-forth affair with 17 ties and eight lead changes that sparked Bellinger's big night, putting home 10 kills in the opener. Just when Delaware was ready to pull away, making a 3-0 run to take a 21-18 lead, Charleston came back to tie things at 23 and the teams exchange points from there.

The Cougars pulled in front 29-28 before a three-straight kills from senior Bailey Pearlman, redshirt freshman Adelina Rivera, and Bellinger closed things out to give the Blue Hens a 1-0 advantage.

Pearlman was effective off the bench with seven kills, hitting .364 with a block while Rivera added six kills and six blocks.

Delaware found itself behind 12-9 in the second before a quick 3-0 run that included a pair of Bellinger kills forced a Charleston timeout and the run continued to give the Blue Hens a 13-12 lead.

Again, the teams traded blows down the stretch before Delaware pulled free to make it 23-20 after freshman Ezgi Basaranlar's sneaky kill off the dig. Peralman had a pair of kills sandwiched around a Charleston point to head into the break up two sets.

"I thought Ezgi played some of her best volleyball tonight and Maria was just unstoppable," Matthews said.

Basaranlar had 40 assists with a career-high six blocks, six digs and two kills in the three sets.

The third was all Delaware, rattling off a 7-1 run in the heart of the frame to go up 20-13. Eight of the Blue Hens' 22 blocks on the night came in set three as the combination of redshirt junior Julia Hayes and freshman Lani Mason made the denial to close things out.

Hayes was efficient with four kills on seven swings with four denials and Mason had seven kills with six digs and three blocks.

After three matches in four days, the Blue Hens will only play one time in the next 11 days when they travel to James Madison for a 7 p.m. first serve Friday night.

For the latest on the Delaware volleyball program, follow the Blue Hens on Twitter @DelawareVB and Instagram @delawarevolleyball, and like on Facebook at Delaware Volleyball.