Tartans to Play in UAA Third-Place Match

(CLEVELAND, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University volleyball team won its opening match of the University Athletic Association (UAA) Tournament against Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) before falling in the semifinal match to 11th-ranked New York University (NYU) on Friday night in Cleveland, Ohio. The Tartans are now 14-13 overall and will play in the third-place match on Saturday morning.

In the opening match of the tournament for Carnegie Mellon, the Tartans topped WashU, 3-2. The Tartans made quick work in taking the first two sets by scores of 25-18 and 25-14 but the Bears rallied just as quick to tie the match with scores of 25-15 and 25-14. The Tartans would prevail in the fifth set, 15-11, after jumping out to a 7-3 lead.

Three Tartans recorded double-digit kill marks with senior Anna Cao (Princeton, N.J. / Princeton) leading with 13. Senior Vivian Beaudoin (Washington, N.J. / Warren Hills) hit .303 with 12 kills and sophomore Laura Reichard (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico / Saint John's School) tallied 10 kills. Junior setter Stella Yan (Coppell, Texas / Coppell) dished out 34 assists and had 21 digs for her 14th double-double of the season.

Freshman Abby Chen (Fairfax, Va. / Oakton) was the top defender with 23 digs while senior Carrie Stewart (Victor, N.Y. / Victor) had five block assists and Beaudoin had four block assists. Chen also led the team in service aces, recording four for the fourth time this season.

The Tartans gave the NYU Violets their lone UAA loss earlier this year with a 3-2 win on October 17 but this time the Violets didn't let the Tartans force a fifth set, as the nationally-ranked team won 3-1 by set scores of 25-15, 20-25, 25-10, and 25-21.

Carnegie Mellon's best offensive set was the one they won, as they hit .481 with 14 kills but the Violets put an end to that in set three with six blocks.

The Tartans pushed the Violets in set four but were unable to overcome the deficit at the end and NYU went on to win.

Cao led the Tartans with 10 kills and a hitting percentage of .214 while Yan had four kills. Reichard recorded nine kills with Beaudoin finishing with seven kills. Yan had 31 assists and 15 digs with sophomore Mindee Lai (Belmont, Mass. / Belmont) picking up 16 digs.

The Tartans will face 20th-ranked University of Chicago in the third-place match at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, November 6 on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.