Bears Fall to No. 15 Washington in NCAA Opening Round

Friday, December 3

Seattle, Wash.

10:00 p.m. ET

Brown University

20-6,13-1Ivy League

Washington

25-4,17-3Pac-12

Brown

Washington

Photo by: Richard McEnery

Bears Fall to No. 15 Washington in NCAA Opening Round

12/4/2021 1:01:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

SEATTLE, Wash. – The Brown women's volleyball team saw its stellar 2021 season come to an end on Friday evening with a 3-0 loss to No. 15 Washington in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The Ivy League champions finish the season at 20-6 overall, tied for the fewest losses in a single season in program history, with the other coming in 1977. Washington (25-4), the Pac-12 champs and a Final Four team last season, advances to the second round to face Hawaii, who pulled off an upset in a five-set thriller over Mississippi State earlier on Friday.

Junior Sophia Miller led the Bears with a match-high 10 kills, sophomore Kate Sheire added five kills and a team-leading four blocks, and freshman Beau Vanderlaan tallied a .462 hitting percentage with six kills and three blocks. Sophomore Cierra Jenkins led the team with 21 assists and 10 digs.

As a team, Washington hit .323 for the match and limited the Bears to a season-low .113 hitting percentage. It marked just the fourth time all season Brown allowed an opponent to hit .300 in a match, with the previous three all resulting in wins.

"It was so much fun watching this team grow up right in front of our eyes," said head coach Ahen Kim. "One of the cool things is you get to play everyone in the league twice and we saw in the last six matches in league play how we took off. We just really settled into our role and it felt like we could be the best team in the conference, and then once they felt like they had a vision for it and it became reality we really took off with it. Even from the USC match to today, I saw growth and maturity and we played even better this weekend than we did last weekend at USC."

Washington scored three straight to take a 5-2 lead in the opening set, prompting a Brown timeout. A 7-0 run made it 8-2, before Brown scored four straight to cut it to 8-6 courtesy of a service ace from Victoria Vo and a big kill from Vanderlaan. Washington used a 9-4 run to take control at 23-13 and went on to take set one by a score of 25-15. The Huskies hit .333 in the opening set and limited the Bears to a .057 clip.

The second set started out much like the first set with Brown taking an early 2-1 lead before Washington rattled of five straight to take a 6-2 lead, forcing a Brown timeout. The Bears pulled within 7-5 thanks to a big block from Sheire and Vanderlaan. Washington used five straight to extend the lead to 16-7 before taking the set 25-13.

"Every time this team gets an opportunity and something is new, they do struggle, but they struggle well through it and they just keep getting better and keep growing and I couldn't be prouder," Kim said.

Freshman Gabby Derrick stuffed a Washington attempt early in the third set to help the Bears jump in front 3-1. Brown pulled within two on three occasions at 9-7 and 11-9, then again at 17-15 when Kristin Sellers drilled a service ace. Miller and Derrick teamed up for another block to get within 20-17 and the Bears clawed back into it once more at 22-20 following an attack error, but the Huskies came back with the next three points to complete the sweep with a 25-20 win in set three.

"I think Washington decided to go with a matchup thing and they sent some balls to the middle, partly because they passed really well and we couldn't get them off their serving game," Kim said. "I thought we were doing a good job just attacking high hands and finding ways of playing the seam, and just trusting that we are there and we are physical enough. It took a couple sets for us to recognize that, but once we did, I thought we did a good job."

Gallery: (12-3-2021) WVB at Washington- NCAA Tournament