SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Ursinus College volleyball team continued its dive into a daunting early Centennial Conference schedule with a road trip to nationally ranked Swarthmore on Tuesday, dropping a 3-0 sweep (25-9, 25-16, 25-16) against last year's conference runner-up.
Fresh off matches at McDaniel and at home against 16th-ranked Johns Hopkins, the Bears (5-8, 0-3) have now faced three of last year's CC semifinalists in the last five days. Following a run to the NCAA quarterfinals last season, No. 25 Swarthmore (9-1, 2-0) is off to another strong start.
Ursinus had trouble getting anything going offensively, hitting -.032 against a Garnet squad that racked up eight blocks. Swarthmore made just six errors and hit at a .379 clip for the night.
Junior Kelly Piotrowicz matched sophomore Emily Harris for the team lead with five kills, also notching nine digs and six assists. Sophomore Paige DeAlba paced Ursinus with 10 assists in addition to four kills and three digs, while senior Sydney Gonzalez had a team-best 10 digs. Sophomore Grace Sullivan finished with eight digs and two aces.
The Bears hung in early, trailing just 4-3 after the opening seven points of the match. But the Garnet quickly built an insurmountable advantage and rolled to a 25-9 first-set decision.
The second set was knotted at 6 before the hosts reeled off ten points in a row to take control, and Swarthmore kept Ursinus at arm's length en route to another 25-16 frame in the third.
Ursinus welcomes undefeated Gettysburg and Penn State Brandywine to Helfferich Hall for Saturday twin bill.