No. 10 Tartans Top No. 13 Hope and Muskingum by 3-1 Scores

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The 10th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University volleyball team finished play in the Carnegie Mellon DoubleTree Invitational on Saturday, September 14 with a morning 3-1 victory against 13th-ranked Hope College and an evening 3-1 win against previously undefeated Muskingum University. The Tartans are now 10-1 on the season.

The Tartans won the first set 25-23 against the Flying Dutch before the visitors took the second set by the same score. Sets three and four went to the Tartans by scores of 25-20 and 25-21. The Tartans hit .278 as ateam and had seven total blocks. Three finished with double-digit kills with senior Erika Foose (Allentown, Pa. / Parkland) leading the team with 12. Senior Sahara Aqui (Miramar, Fla. / Archbishop McCarthy) and junior Diana Balta (Media, Pa. / Penncrest) each tallied 11 kills while senior Maia So-Holloway (Oakland, Calif. / Sacred Heart Cathedral) and freshman Stella Yan (Coppell, Texas / Coppell) each had 20 assists. Senior Kayla Yew (San Francisco, Calif. / Sacred Heart Cathedral) led with 18 digs while Yan picked up 12 digs. Aqui led at the net with one block solo and three block assists. Yew put three points on the board for the Tartans with service aces.

Against Muskingum, the Tartans won sets one and two by 25-19 and 25-21 scores. The Muskies then rallied for a 26-24 set three win before the Tartans closed it out with a 25-17 victory. In this match, the Tartans finished with a .297 hitting percentage, twice hitting better than .400 in individual sets. Once again, three Tartans reached the double-figure mark in kills while three finished with double-digit digs. Sophomore Carrie Stewart (Victor, N.Y. / Victor) hit .545 with no errors and team-best 12 kills in the win. Foose and Balta each collected 10 kills with Aqui just behind them with nine kills and a .389 hitting percentage from the middle.

Yew picked up 20 digs, Balta 13 digs, and Yan 11 digs with 21 assists in the final match of the night. So-Holloway had 22 assists, was one of three players with three service aces and also had seven digs. Sophomore Vivian Beaudoin (Washington, N.J. / Warren Hills) had two block assists to lead the front line defense while Aqui and Foose each had a block assist.

The Tartans will next host Point Park University on Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00 p.m. before beginning University Athletic Association (UAA) play on Saturday, September 21 against the University of Rochester at Brandeis University.