WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bowdoin College volleyball team held off a late rally to defeat Brandeis 3-2 on Friday evening on Day One of the Brandeis Invitational. The Polar Bears extend their winning streak to four matches and improve to 4-1 on the season while the Judges fall to 6-4.
 
Match Highlights

• The Polar Bears earned the win by set scores of 25-17, 25-15, 16-25, 17-25, 16-14.
• Bowdoin jumped to an early lead in both of the first two sets and took comfortable wins, only to see Brandeis flip the script in sets three and four to force a tiebreaking fifth.
• Bowdoin took an early lead in the fifth set thanks to a pair of early aces by Cameron Shelly, and extended their advantage to 9-4 midway through the frame.
• Brandeis responded with a 9-3 surge to take a stunning 13-12 lead, but Bowdoin answered with kills from Alison Smith and Mary John to regain their lead.
• After Brandeis tied the match at 14 apiece, Bowdoin was able to close it out on another kill from Smith and an attack error by the Judges to prevail, 16-14.

By The Numbers

• Skye LaMendola had 14 kills to go with eight digs, two aces and two blocks in the win for the Polar Bears.
• Alison Smith added 13 kills against just one error while Haley Campau added nine kills and three blocks.
• Defensively, Mary John had four blocks and Olivia Deane had ten digs.
• Cameron Shelly dished out 29 assists and had nine aces for the Polar Bears, the most in a single match for a Bowdoin player in the last decade.

Up Next

• Bowdoin will play a doubleheader Saturday at Brandeis, facing Springfield in the morning (11:00 a.m.) before battling Roger Williams in the afternoon (1:00 p.m.)