SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Haverford College volleyball team (11-17, 4-6 CC) dropped the season finale at Swarthmore on Saturday afternoon, falling by a final of 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 26-24) inside Tarble Pavilion. The Fords rallied to take the third set to extra points, but ultimately the Garnet (14-9, 7-3 CC) prevailed for a home win.
Dina Kosyagin had eight kills to lead the Fords. Sara Hunsberger added 16 assists while co-captain Sara Matsumura posted 16 digs, adding double-digit digs for the 28th consecutive contest, a streak that dates back to last season's home finale against the Garnet. Julia Gallagher-Teske recorded three blocks, pulling to 299 total denials for her career at the end of her junior campaign. Gallagher-Teske finished with 112 total blocks on the season, tied for the second-most in program history with Amy Taylor's 1989 campaign.
Swarthmore took the first set behind a .273 hitting percentage, turning an early 11-9 lead into a 20-11 advantage. Madison Adore registered kills on back-to-back Haverford points to cut the Garnet lead to just seven, but Swarthmore pulled away for a 25-15 win.
The second set saw Swarthmore open up a 13-7 lead, but Haverford stormed back to within three with a run that was punctuated by a kill from Gallagher-Teske. The Garnet lead shrunk to just two at 14-12 following an Adore kill, and the Fords found themselves down by just one at 19-18 after Natalie Pisch found the floor with a kill of her own. Swarthmore called for timeout, and regrouped to the tune of a 3-0 run. Sydney Miller added a late kill for Haverford, but Swarthmore scored the final three points for a 25-19 victory.
In the third, the two sides were deadlocked at 9-9 before Swarthmore turned that into an 18-10 lead, seemingly ready to cruise to a sweep. The Fords had different plans, using a 5-0 run to cut the lead down to just three. The lead was three at 23-20, but Haverford chipped away yet again, using back-to-back Kosyagin kills to even the score at 24-24. Emma Morgan-Bennett tallied back-to-back kills of her own to hand Swarthmore the sweep with a 26-24 victory in the third.
Haverford must replace the production of senior co-captain Natalie Pisch, who finishes her illustrious Haverford career ranked ninth in total kills (1,041), and in the top 15 in kills per set, assisted blocks, points, and points per set. The rest of the Haverford roster returns for the 2019 season, looking to build on a year that saw a bevy of first year players make an immediate impact on the program.