Bears drop tough five set match at Bryant

Tuesday, September 6

Smithfield, R.I.

7:30 p.m.

Brown University

2-2,0-0Ivy League

Bryant

5-3,0-0America East

Brown

Bryant

Photo by: David Silverman Photography

9/6/2022 11:02:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Brown volleyball's comeback attempt came up short, falling in five sets to Bryant on Tuesday night. The Bears dropped the first two sets before forcing a fifth set in the loss.

Brown (2-2) was led by Sophia Miller, who finished with 23 kills, reaching the 20-kill mark for the second time this season. Miller also had 10 digs for a double-double. Beau Vanderlaan was second on the team with 13 kills and hit a team-high .333.

On defense, Victoria Vo led the Bears with 11 digs and Mariia Sidorova collected 10. Brown finished the game with 18 blocks, the most for the Bears since 2018 in a match against Bryant. Gabby Derrick led Brown with 10 blocks and Vanderlaan was second on the team with seven.

Brown struggled in the first two sets, hitting below .125 in each, as Bryant (5-3) jumped out to early leads. The Bears were never able to overcome the early deficits in either set and fell behind 2-0 in the match.

Things changed in the third set as Brown's offense started to click. The Bears hit .333 in the third and held Bryant to -.108. A block by the duo of Derrick and Kate Sheire gave the Bears an early 6-1 lead. Kills by Vanderlaan and Miller were part of a 4-0 run that increased Brown's lead to 16-7. Up 22-14, kills by Miller sandwiched an error by the Bulldogs to give Brown its first set.

Another big run started the fourth set as Miller had three kills and was part of a block with Vanderlaan during a 7-1 run. Bryant came back to take a 9-8 lead but a quick 4-0 run that featured two kills by Sheire put the Bears back up three.

The set with back-and-forth with Bryant eventually earning match point at 24-22. Widener fought off the first match point with a kill and an error by Bryant tied up the set. After a kill by Vanderlaan, another error by the Bulldogs sent the match to a fifth set.

Back-to-back kills by Miller put Brown up 4-1 early and two more kills from the senior gave Brown a 6-4 lead. Brown looked in control of the set after kills by Miller and Vanderlaan put the Bears up 11-9 but Bryant scored the next four points to go ahead by one. A kill by Derrick and an error by the Bulldogs gave Brown match point at 14-13 but Bryant scored the next three points to take the match.

UP NEXT
Brown will be on the road this weekend for a tournament at Rice. The Bears will take on the Owls on Friday, before playing Texas Tech and Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Saturday.

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