Volleyball Sweeps Weekend Series at UNCW

Sunday, October 10

Wilmington, N.C.

1 PM

University of Delaware

8-9,3-5CAA

UNCW

2-15,1-5CAA

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Delaware	25	25	25	3
UNCW	12	11	21	0

Photo by: Mark Campbell

10/10/2021 3:43:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

WILMINGTON, N.C. – That's three straight wins for the University of Delaware volleyball team! The Blue Hens swept the UNCW Seahawks (2-15, 1-5 CAA) in straight sets (25-12, 25-11, 25-21) Sunday afternoon in a road Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) battle from Hanover Hall in Wilmington, N.C.

The win moves Delaware to an 8-9 record on the season, including a 3-5 mark in conference play.

"I am very proud of our group for their efforts this weekend," said head coach Sara Matthews. "We served outstanding the whole match and fought through UNCW making a strong comeback in set 3. This should provide us some momentum moving into practice this week as we prep for Northeastern."

It was all Delaware as the squad attacked at a dominating rate of .329 compared to UNCW's .053. The Blue Hens led the way in all categories, points (54-26), kills (38-22), aces (11-1), blocks (5-3), assists (33-20) and digs (33-27).

The Blue & Gold opened the match with a 9-2 run highlighted by Ezgi Basaranlar serving five-straight points. Later in the set, Delaware went on a 4-0 run to extend their lead to double-digits, 19-8. UNCW responded with three-straight points to trim the lead to single digits, 19-11, before the Blue Hens used a 6-1 run capped by a Grace Underwood kill to capture the 25-12 set one win.

Delaware was on absolute fire to open the second set. The Blue Hens scored nine unanswered points with Basaranlar serving, 9-0. UNCW entered the scoring column after back-to-back kills by Brianna Haggerty and Sarah Blakely. Delaware continued to reign supreme scoring six-straight to push its lead to 13 points, 15-2. Blakely got the Seahawks into double figures with a kill before the Blue Hens claimed the 25-11 victory after an attacking error by Grace Melnick. Delaware held UNCW to its lowest set points for the second straight match after putting together a match-high .591 attacking percentage.

The Blue Hens remained in the driver's seat to start the third frame as the team held a 7-3 lead. UNCW rallied and went on a 12-4 run to gain its first lead of the afternoon, 15-11. A Lauryn Richardson kill ignited a critical 5-1 run for the Blue Hens to retake the lead for good. The Seahawks tied the game at 21 before Katie Turner's back-to-back aces and Lani Mason nailing down her match-high 17th kill completed the sweep, 25-21.

Along with her kills, Mason added six digs and two aces to her stat line to lead Delaware to victory. Underwood followed with seven kills, two block solos and one block assist. Richardson had seven kills, while Basaranlar had an impressive 30 assists to lead Delaware's offense, along with five digs and four aces to go with it. Turner had the defense on lock with 10 digs.

Blakely paced UNCW with nine kills. Claire Sawyer dished out 11 assists and Jadyn Barry scooped up nine digs.

WHAT'S NEXT
The Blue Hens will travel to Boston, Mass. next Saturday, Oct. 16, to face the Northeastern University Huskies (8-8, 4-2 CAA) in a CAA weekend series showdown from Cabot Center starting at 1 p.m.

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