Albers led the No.4 Washington University volleyball team with a career high 25 kills to a 3-2 come from behind victory over No. 6 Hope College in the NCAA Division III National Semifinal.

Freshman Kelly Pang bumps the ball against Carthage College in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship match. Wash. U. advances to the National Championship match against Juniata College after defeating Hope College 3-2. Pang led the Bears with 15 digs. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

After taking control in the first set with a 25-21 win, the Red and Green struggled against the Flying Dutchmen. Hope set the tone early and maintained their leads in the second set (25-22) and third set (25-15). With Hope up 10-5 in the fourth set, the Bears seemed ready for an early departure.

But two Hope errors and a kill by sophomore Lauren Budde closed the gap to 8-10. Wash. U. continued to fight to knot the score and were stymied until an attack error by Drew Horst and back to back solo blocks by Budde and freshman Drew Hargrave gave the Red and Green a 17-16 advantage.

The Flying Dutchmen and the Bears continued to trade points until the score was knotted at 25. Budde made a kill and a Hope attack error gave new life to the Wash. U. offense as the teams headed to the decisive fifth set. Wash. U. and Hope had faced each other earlier in the season, with the Flying Dutchmen taking a 3-1 win.

Albers took control in the first set with the Bears’ first three kills as the teams traded points. Hope countered and took a 5-3 lead before Wash. U. battled back with a 4-1 run. The Flying Dutchmen took a timeout in an effort to regain the momentum but another attack error gave the Bears an 8-6 advantage.

A service ace by freshman Kelly Pang extended the lead before both teams traded points once more. Wash. U.’s offense stalled and the Flying Dutchmen strung together a four point run to put the score at 13-11.  The Bears used their final timeout and sophomore Kristen Thomas came out with a kill. After a kill from Hope’s Jacie Fielder brought the score to 14-12, the Bears capitalized on a setting error and clinched a spot in the National Championship game.

Pang led the Bears defensively with 15 digs and senior Laura Brazeal chipped in ten. Albers, Budde and Thomas had double digits kills with 25, 19 and 14 respectively. The team could not be reached for comments.

The Bears face No. 1 Juniata College at 7 p.m. (ET) in University Heights, Ohio. Juniata advanced after dispatching No. 2 University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh In their last meeting, Wash. U. defeated Juniata 3-0 (28-26, 41-39,27-25) on September 18 in the Teri Clemens Invitational.

Senior Erin Albers and junior Marya Kaminski go up to block against Virginia Wesleyan College on Friday night. With three wins this weekend, the Bears earned the number one seed for the University Athletic Association championship next weekend in Chicago. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

As the legacy of a pair of seniors on the Washington University women’s volleyball team draws near its close, this year’s team may be close to setting in place a legacy of its own.

Senior co-captains Erin Albers and Laura Brazeal were honored Friday night in a ceremony that highlighted yet another strong weekend of play from the No. 3 Bears. Wash. U. swept Virginia Wesleyan College (25-12, 25-20, 25-16), Culver-Stockton College (25-21, 25-11, 25-16) and Rhodes College (25-13, 28-26, 25-13) over the weekend.

Against Virginia Wesleyan, the team scored points in bunches, getting seven runs of four points or more, including a nine-point run in the second set. Albers led the team with 12 kills, the last of which ended the match. Freshman Marilee Fisher had a strong showing as well, setting 33 assists in place.

Before the match against Culver-Stockton, Albers and Brazeal—a pair who have helped the team to a 128-17 record and a national title in their careers—were acknowledged for their contributions over their four years.

“It was weird to be recognized like that because we’ve always been the ones recognizing people,” Brazeal said. “So to be on the other side of that, you could really feel the love on this team.”

After the ceremony the team played another strong match, overcoming slow starts in the first and third sets to take all three. Albers again led the team with 13 kills, while Brazeal—who started the game at libero—tied freshman Kelly Pang with 12 digs.

The Bears played strongly in their lone Saturday match during the first and third sets, while overcoming a sluggish performance in the second to hold on to yet another sweep. On top of yet another excellent showing from Albers (14 kills), sophomore Lauren Budde (10 kills, 16 digs) and freshman Drew Hargrave (10 kills) helped lead the way for the Bears. Pang, Albers and Fisher were named to the all-tournament team.

When the tournament was over, two subjects were on everyone’s minds: the seniors and championships.

“Laura and Erin have been two of the most outstanding captains I have had in my coaching experience,” head coach Rich Luenemann said. “There’s no way I could come close to asking for anything else from the captains. They’re the best.”

Albers and Brazeal, two of the school’s top players in kills and digs, respectively, were both upset to see their careers come near their close.

“This team has been our family here at Wash. U., so it’s really sad that this is potentially our last home weekend,” Albers said. “I’m really going to miss all the girls, and the team has been the highlight of my Wash. U. experience.”

Yet, the two still have time to add to their lists of accomplishments.

With this weekend’s victories, the team finished a perfect October and has won 19 matches in a row against Division III opponents.

Despite the Lady Bears’ success, they refuse to get too far ahead of themselves.

“We can’t look forward to the next game, because it won’t matter if we don’t focus on the game we’re playing,” Brazeal said.

“Our concentration is on the next point,” Albers agreed. “I have a good feeling about this year, and we just need to take it slow and not get ahead of ourselves.”

The Bears will be the top seed in next weekend’s UAA tournament. They face University of Rochester at noon on Friday, Nov. 6, and Case Western Reserve University at 2 p.m. On Saturday, the Bears play New York University at noon. The championship match, should the Bears make it, begins at 4 p.m.

Freshman Kelly Pang bumps the ball against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Sept. 12. Pang was named to the Teri Clemens Invitational All-Tournament Team with 65 digs. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Although the University Athletic Association conference competition is slated to begin next weekend, the Washington University women’s volleyball team is surely glad to have the toughest stretch of its schedule behind them.

The No. 4 Bears split a mid-week pair of games against St. Louis-area teams, dropping a contest against Division II University of Missouri-St. Louis on Tuesday (25-13, 21-25, 25-18, 25-23) and coming back the next day to take down Fontbonne University in straight sets (25-14, 25-15, 29-27).

The loss to UMSL was the team’s first loss since a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Ohio Northern University on Sept. 11. The Bears fought back after losing the first set and tied it at one apiece, but UMSL proved to be too much, taking the last two.

Despite the loss, the game wasn’t without its positives for the ladies. Freshman Kelly Pang registered a season-high 33 digs, and sophomore Lauren Budde had a strong game both offensively and defensively, racking up 12 kills and 13 digs.

Fontbonne provided much less of a challenge for the Bears, who began cycling in many of the team’s backups after the first set. Freshman Meg Buker led the team with 28 assists and helped the team rally after being down in the third set.

“It shows a lot that even though we had a lot of non-starters in, we still continued through and were able to pull through in the end,” senior co-captain Laura Brazeal said. “We’re still able to continue the determination that we have.”

Yet the biggest victory of the week for the Bears may have come not on the court, but in the schedule.

The game against UMSL marked the end of an incredibly difficult out-of-conference stretch of games for the Bears: in a 12-day span between Friday, Sept. 11, and this past Tuesday. In the stretch, the Bears played seven nationally-ranked Division III schools and one Division II school and made it through with a 6-2 mark.

The team does not play another nationally-ranked squad until it faces No. 3 Emory University on Oct. 17. The Bears are celebrating by taking a well-earned break.

“After those two tournaments and UMSL, we are physically beaten up. We’re taking five days off of practice,” head coach Rich Luenemann said after Wednesday’s game. “That’s almost unheard of in collegiate athletics, but our players need the rest, both physically and mentally.”

While it is an unusual practice to leave players off the court for that long, the ladies have no question that they can keep up their high levels of play after this break—and they’re welcoming it with open arms.

“A lot of us are under the weather, so it’s really important that we rest,” sophomore Tricia Brandt said. “But we know it’s very important to keep the intensity going.”

If anyone thinks there’s a chance the team could come out of that break without any of the intensity that it has had all season, Luenemann had the following message after Wednesday’s game: “We’re coming back to practice next Tuesday, guns a-blazin’. Look out, folks.”