COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Sydney Gonzalez left the Ursinus College volleyball team with a victory in tow as the Bears capped the 2018 campaign with a 3-0 Centennial Conference sweep (25-21, 25-16, 25-10) of visiting Bryn Mawr on Senior Day.
Gonzalez finished with six digs, two aces, and an assist in her last match for the Bears (10-18, 2-8), who picked up their 10th victory of the season to hit double figures for the first time since 2014.
After honoring Gonzalez in a pre-match ceremony, the home side came out flat and quickly fell behind 5-0. The Owls (6-17, 0-10) kept the Bears at arm's length at 10-5 until a service error put the ball in the hands of freshman Kaitlyn McGinley. The rookie promptly served out six more points in a row, the last two on kills by sophomores Paige DeAlba and Emily Harris, to put Ursinus up 12-10.
After Bryn Mawr went ahead 15-13, Ursinus took the lead for good on an attack error, and McGinley's ace closed out a 25-21 first set.
The Bears had no issues in the next two sets. Gonzalez served the Bears to a 7-1 lead in the second, and another five-point run from McGinley made it a commanding 17-5 advantage en route to a 25-16 final.
Ursinus won the first six points of the third on the serve of junior Kelly Piotrowicz and cruised to a 25-10 score in the final frame.
DeAlba and freshman Olivia DeBonte paced the Bears with six kills apiece, with the former adding five assists and four digs and the latter tacking on six digs. Piotrowicz handed out a match-high 17 assists to go with nine digs and five kills.
Junior Miranda Foster had five kills and Harris chipped in four, and each joined DeAlba with a block.