The Spartans had a difficult day to start the University Athletics Association Round Robin Tournament #1, losing matches against New York University and Carnegie Mellon University.

The UAA is a very challenging division for volleyball. Both CMU and NYU have winning records, CMU with five losses on the season and NYU with only one loss. Both teams showed dominance over the inexperienced CWRU squad.

Saturday started with the match versus NYU.  The Spartans lost in three close sets with scores of 25-15, 25-23 and 25-23. The team was unable to capitalize on good playing by its members and failed to win a single set.

The day didn’t get any easier with CMU taking the first two sets of the next match with scores of 25-18 and 25-20. The Spartans finally got a breakthrough in the third set, winning 25-22 to stay alive. The team played well throughout, fighting for every point, but they weren’t able to outmatch the CMU offense and lost the fourth set and match with a score of 25-19.

Both matches were well played on both sides. The Spartans put together enough plays to be competitive in each round, but were simply unable to overcome the dominant play of their opponents.

Standout players include freshman Isabelle Wagner who had 20 kills on the day and sophomore Robyn Marks who orchestrated the offense with 31 assists. On the defensive end, Katie Best has 30 digs so far in the tournament.

The Spartans will look to improve their UAA record tomorrow as they face Emory University tomorrow at the Veale Center. We will post an update following this match.