Volleyball rolls past George Mason, extends conference win streak to 22 games

Kayleigh Fitzpatrick
Online Editor

Volleyball continued to roll Friday night, defeating George Mason 3-0 at the Seigel Center. The victory extended VCU’s conference winning streak to 22 matches and its overall season winning streak to seven.

The Rams (11-7, 6-0 Atlantic-10 Conference) received an early spark after an emphatic kill by senior middle blocker Tori Baldwin and a block key block by junior middle blocker Jasmin Sneed, and jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead over George Mason (6-10, 4-2). During the first set, the Rams had three different runs of at least four points and three different players recorded at least 2 kills.

“We play as a team,” Baldwin said, who tied for the team lead in kills for the match with nine. “We are always looking to have each other’s backs to be there when we are needed.”

The second set was a back and forth affair, with VCU never leading by more than two points, until a block by Sneed — VCU’s first for the set — extended the set lead to 15-12. After trading a few more points, VCU ended the set on a 7-1 run, with six points coming off of serves from setter Dejah Ard.

During the second set alone VCU forced George Mason into 13 unforced errors and 31 errors in total for the match.

“Our main thing was to take them out of their offense,” said head coach Jody Rogers. “We served them hard to not allow them to get into a rhythm and that was our gameplan and the kids did a great job with that tonight and you can’t ask for more.”

VCU picked up the third set where it left off in the second, starting the set with a 7-1 run and never looked back. During the run, Gina Tuzzolo sparked the team with by chasing down an errant pass out of bounds to get the ball back in play the Baldwin finished off with the kill.

“Oh it was awesome,” Baldwin said. “As a team we fed off that and just continued to roll.”

Added Rogers: “It just takes one kid or even two kids to make an extraordinary play and that’s what we needed. We need everyone to want to be awesome each game and to be able execute that and carry that into the next point.”

VCU has a day off before returning to the Siegel Center court Sunday against George Washington. On Saturday though, the Rams will get a special one-on-one team visit from three-time gold medalist Misty May-Treanor.

“I am so excited,” said senior opposite hitter Julia Adler. “I’ve read her book and I’m so excited to be able to listen to the things she has to say.”