PITTSBURGH – The Duquesne University volleyball team fell to William & Mary Friday night at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational by a score of 3-0.  

The Dukes record is now 1-4 on the season. William & Mary improves to 2-3.

Despite a second-straight strong effort by senior Morgan Kelly, the Dukes could not find their footing against the Tribe.

Kelly recorded double-digit kills for the second time today and also chipped in two blocks.

Freshman Carsyn Henschen recorded eight kills to follow-up her 21-kill effort just hours earlier.

Freshman Ariel Helm was once again impactful. The first-year player had six kills and two blocks. Another freshman, Madison Grimm, led the team in digs with 21 of them.

Senior Hailey Poling recorded 23 assists. Sophomore Anna Shoemake led the team with a .273 hitting percentage.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Duquesne and William & Mary started out in a tight contest, with neither team getting larger than a four-point lead in the first set. The Dukes' four-point lead was at 23-19, but unfortunately for them, the Tribe would score six-straight to win the set.

The second set was not any friendlier to Duquesne. This set included a 5-0 run, two 4-0 runs and three 3-0 runs for William & Mary. Nothing was falling in place for Duquesne as they dropped this one 25-12.

Duquesne led in the third set at 13-10, but it wasn't able to hold its lead all the way through the third set to stay alive. Once the Tribe took over at 14-13 after a 4-0 run, they never gave it back up. The Dukes would keep it close at 21-19, but they would never end up taking the lead back as they fell 25-20.

GAME NOTES

• Grimm's 21 digs were a season high for the young defensive specialist. She played in all seven sets today between the two matches.
• Kelly's 10 kills today make it two-straight games with double-digit kills. After just two matches played she is already second on the team in kills.
• After her seven sets played today, Spencer leads the team with 4.29 digs per set.
• After two more blocks in this match, Helm extends her team-lead of 18 blocks this season.

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