The Wash. U. Bears will play for the UAA Tournament title, Saturday afternoon in New York. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| UAA – 1st Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #7 Rochester (NY) | 12 | 25 | 16 | 12 |
| #2 Wash. U. | 25 | 21 | 25 | 25 |
| UAA – Semifinals | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #6 Carnegie Mellon | 12 | 25 | 25 | 17 | 10 |
| #2 Wash. U. | 25 | 23 | 23 | 25 | 15 |
Steven Millbrook
Staff Writer
BROOKLYN, NY — The Washington University women’s volleyball team enjoyed perhaps its best day of the 2022 season on Friday, when it won two tight matches to advance to the UAA Tournament Championship Game, which will be played Saturday at New York University’s Pratt Gymnasium.
The Bears defeated Rochester and Carnegie-Mellon in first round and semifinal matches Friday, and will play Emory University in the tournament title game on Saturday. The winner of that match will not only win the UAA championship, it will also earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III National Tournament, which will begin in December.
Wash. U. came into the weekend ranked No. 8 in the country and seems likely to receive a bid into the national tournament whether it wins the UAA title or not. But the only way to be certain is to earn the automatic bid, and that’s what the Bears will play Emory for on Saturday.
On Friday, Wash. U. began its day by knocking off Rochester, three sets to one. The Bears won the first set 25-12, but lost the second set 25-21.
That set up a dramatic scenario, where the second-seeded Bears could have potentially been defeated by the seventh-seeded Yellowjackets. But Wash. U. didn’t take any chances, and jumped on top of Rochester quickly in the third set.
The Bears never trailed in either the third or fourth sets, and closed out the match by winning 25-16 and 25-12.
In its second match of the day, Wash. U. faced a stiff test against Carnegie-Mellon, which came into the tournament as the No. 6 seed. The Bears won the first set 25-12, but the Tartans were spectacular in the second and third sets, winning each 25-23.
That put Carnegie-Mellon in position to perhaps pull off its biggest upset of the season, which had it happened, would’ve definitely knocked the Bears out of the UAA Tournament and could have perhaps affected its chances of making the NCAA Tournament.
But the upset didn’t happen, as Wash. U. played inspired ball of its own in the fourth and fifth sets. Although actually, it was the Tartans who began the fourth set with inspired play, as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead. But Wash. U. responded with an 8-0 run to go ahead 8-6, and then used a 10-0 run to close the set with a 25-17 win.
That set up an intense fifth set, which the Bears led from start to finish. They began the final stanza by going ahead 6-2, and led by as much as 13-5, before closing out the match with a 15-10 final set win.
For the season, Wash. U. is now 29-4 and will look for its 30th win of the season on Saturday, when it plays a Emory team it lost to back on October 2.
The Eagles, who came into the UAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed, defeated fifth-seeded Case Western Reserve in the first round and top-seeded NYU in the second round to advance to Saturday’s championship game.
The match is scheduled to begin at noon, and will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
Tournament Schedule:
| Friday, November 4 | ||
| Court A | Court B | |
| 12:00 PM | Match 1: (1) NYU 3 vs. (8) Brandeis 0 Quarterfinals Box Score | Match 2: (2) Wash. U. 3 vs. (7) Rochester 1 Quarterfinals Box Score |
| 2:00 PM | Match 3: (3) Chicago 2 vs. (6) Carnegie Mellon 3 Quarterfinals Box Score (XML) | Match 4: (4) Emory 3 vs. (5) CWRU 0 Quarterfinals Box Score (XML) |
| 4:00 PM | Match 5: (1) NYU 1 vs. (4) Emory 3 Semifinals Box Score | Match 6: (2) Wash. U. 3 vs. (6) Carnegie Mellon 2 Semifinals Box Score |
| 6:00 PM | Match 7: (5) CWRU vs. (8) Brandeis Box Score | Match 8: (3) Chicago vs. (7) Rochester Box Score |
| Saturday, November 5 | ||
| Court A | Court B | |
| 9:00 AM | Fifth-Place Match Box Score | Seventh-Place Match Box Score |
| 12:00 PM | Championship (2) Wash. U. vs. (4) Emory Box Score | Third-Place Match (1) NYU vs. (6) Carnegie Mellon Box Score |
2022 UAA Standings:
| Team | UAA Record | Overall Record |
| #1 NYU | 6-1 | 23-5 |
| #2 Wash. U. | 5-2 | 27-4 |
| #3 Chicago | 5-2 | 17-11 |
| #4 Emory | 4-3 | 18-6 |
| #5 Case Western Reserve | 4-3 | 21-4 |
| #6 Carnegie-Mellon | 3-4 | 19-6 |
| #7 Rochester | 1-6 | 13-11 |
| #8 Brandeis | 0-7 | 12-13 |