Sports | Women's Volleyball
No. 10 volleyball falls in second round of the NCAA Tournament

Senior McKenzie Washington spikes the ball in a regular season matchup. (Ash Eadala | Contributing Photographer)
Following a second-place finish in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships, the No. 10 WashU volleyball team’s next challenge was the NCAA Division III Tournament, starting with a game against the College of Saint Benedict on Nov. 23.
WashU was able to beat Saint Benedict 3-0, but then fell 3-1 to No. 17 University of Wisconsin–Platteville the following day. The Bears’ season ended in the second round for the third season in a row, with a 29-7 record.
WashU vs. Saint Benedict
The Bears have played the Saint Benedict Bennies four times before in program history, winning three and losing one. The Bennies came into this matchup having just won the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships after a string of impressive performances. While the Bears were not conference-winners, they were heavily favored to win, kickstarting a postseason campaign on a quest for their 11th national title.
In the first set of the match, the two teams shared points back-and-forth, with neither jumping out to a significant lead. At 10-10, however, the Bears won five consecutive points, featuring two kills by sophomore Leah Oyewole and one from senior Lucy Davis. From then on, the two teams returned to trading points back-and-forth, ensuring a Bears first-set victory of 25-18.
In the second set, the Bears continued their dominant form. After going up 6-5, the team won another five straight points. At 11-7, they won another five in a row. And most impressively, at 18-11, the Bears won seven consecutive points to claim the second set 25-11, a thorough outperformance. Davis led the way with five more kills in this set.
Up 2-0, the Bears tried to punch their ticket to the next round. Once more, they took control of the set. The Bennies never threatened as the Bears jumped out to an early 11-4 lead and did not look back. Only allowing nine more points, the Bears wrapped up the decisive third set 25-13, securing their spot in the second round of the tournament.
The Bears enjoyed a strong performance throughout, dominating every metric. The team was propelled by Davis, who finished with nine kills, and strong passing from junior Sam Buckley, who had 34 assists. Additionally, the Bears held the Bennies to a negative hitting percentage on the day, a great defensive feat.
Senior Zoe Foster, who tied for most blocks on the team with six, spoke about the solid defensive performance after the game.
“We worked on blocking a lot this week and having fast hands and having that sort of aggressive mindset to go out and take it,” she said in a press conference. “We were playing clean and moving together, which was easier to seal up the blocks.”
The Bears’ journey for a national championship would continue against Wisconsin–Platteville, who had a 3-0 win against Edgewood College on Nov. 21.
“We’re going to have to play a clean match … [We’ve] got our hands full with a lot going in with [Platteville], but we’ll take it one set at a time,” head coach Vanessa Walby said about the matchup in a press conference after the first round.
WashU vs. Platteville
The Bears spun back in the Round of 32, looking to continue upon the momentum from the 3-0 drubbing of Saint Benedict. However, Platteville came to play.
The first set began with WashU going back-and-forth with Platteville. Eventually, with the Bears down 21-18, the Pioneers pulled away to win 25-20. The story of the first set was WashU’s inability to stop the pressing attack of Platteville.
The second set proved to be more of the same tale, as the Bears lost 18-25. This time, the team was pummeled by their own mistakes, committing seven errors in the set that would be the difference.
In the third set, with the season on the line, the Bears fought back. Foster and Oyewole put on a show, in which they had a combined nine kills. With the game at 21-16 in favor of WashU, errors from the Pioneers essentially put the game away and finished the third set for WashU with a score of 25-18.
“They came out kind of on fire,” Walby said. “We answered pretty well in set three … I thought our team blocked well. I like that we out-blocked them.”
In the fourth set, the Bears went down 9-3 early on a combination of WashU attack errors and Platteville service aces. WashU was never able to make up this deficit, going back-and-forth for the rest of the set until the team eventually lost 25-17. Senior Jasmine Sells had a team-high 16 digs, but it was not enough to avoid the 3-1 loss.
“I would say this is probably one of the tightest teams I’ve had in the last few years, culture-wise,” Walby said. “I think they play well and [know] what it means to be a Bear.”
The Bears put together quite an impressive season, finishing 29-7 with a 5-2 record in the UAA. The team placed second in the UAA tournament and won their first-round matchup of the NCAA tournament. Looking ahead, the Bears will miss a strong senior class, headlined by Sells, Davis, Foster, and Elise Gilroy.
When asked during the press conference about what she would say to athletes considering joining the WashU program, Zoe Foster answered, “Do it.”
“We are a very close group of girls. We genuinely love each other and have each other’s backs. You should’ve seen that locker room just now,” she said. “But it’s such an incredible feeling to be a part of something like that and to know that you have 20+ people that have your back.”