Boston College volleyball had to sweat this one out, but the Eagles opened the Dartmouth Invitational with a five-set win over Quinnipiac on Friday night in Hanover, N.H.
The final line told the story of a match that kept swinging: Boston College won the first two sets, dropped the next two, then slammed the door in the fifth for a 25-22, 25-20, 25-27, 23-25, 15-8 victory. The Eagles improved to 8-1 overall and 0-0 in ACC play, while Quinnipiac fell to 1-8 and 0-0 in Metro action.
Boston College also stretched its winning streak against the Bobcats to eight and picked up its second win over Quinnipiac this season.
Sam Hoppes and Audrey Ross paced the offense with 17 kills apiece. Isabelle Poehlein chipped in 10 kills while hitting .421. Lucie Vesela ran the attack with 30 assists, and Lucy Mott delivered two service aces, a season-best.
The Eagles’ biggest edge came at the net. Naomi Watson finished with 13 blocks, Laney Blevins had seven, and Poehlein added six, all career highs. Together, that trio accounted for 26 of Boston College’s 40 total blocks.
BC came out strong in the opening set, grabbing an early 2-0 lead after a Poehlein kill. Quinnipiac pushed ahead 6-5 and later built a 15-12 cushion, but the Eagles answered with Ross kills and a Watson-Hoppes block to tie it at 16-16.
From there, Mott’s ace and another Poehlein kill helped BC move in front 21-19. After the Bobcats tied it again at 21-21, Ross landed two late kills and Sofija Marjanovic served up an ace before Watson finished the set with a solo block for a 25-22 win.
Set two followed a similar pattern. Quinnipiac opened with a 3-1 lead, but Boston College responded to even things at 5-5 behind a Marjanovic-Watson block.
The Eagles then seized control with a mid-set surge, fueled by kills from Marjanovic and Hoppes and a Blevins-Marjanovic block, to go up 17-12. The Bobcats made a late push to get within 22-20, but BC closed with three straight points, capped by kills from Hoppes and Ross and a Hoppes solo block, to take it 25-20.
Quinnipiac flipped the momentum in the third. After a tight start, the Bobcats ripped off a 7-0 run to build a 13-6 lead.
Boston College answered steadily, with kills from Ava Castro, Hoppes and Poehlein, plus a Yelland ace and blocks from Blevins, Poehlein and Watson, to pull even at 19-19 and then move ahead 20-19. The Eagles reached match point at 25-24 on a Hoppes kill, but Quinnipiac saved itself with three straight points to steal the set 27-25.
The fourth set stayed tense. Boston College went up 9-7 on a Blevins-Hoppes block and a Castro kill, but Quinnipiac surged back with five straight points to take a 17-14 lead.
The Eagles answered with five unanswered of their own, and Ross and Hoppes combined for four kills to put BC back on top 19-17. Still, Quinnipiac wasn’t done.
The Bobcats moved ahead 24-21, BC erased two set points with back-to-back blocks from Poehlein and Blevins, but Quinnipiac finally forced a fifth set with a 25-23 win.
Boston College took over from there. The deciding set was tied 3-3 before the Eagles ripped off a 6-0 run.
Hoppes fueled the burst with three kills and two blocks with Watson to help create a 9-3 lead. Ross later pushed BC to match point at 14-8, and the Eagles ended it on an attack error forced by a Poehlein-Watson block.
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