The Case Western Reserve University volleyball team started the Inaugural Grove City College Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament on Friday night with a four-set loss (21-25, 25-9, 16-25, 32-34) to Marietta College at Grove City Arena in Grove City, Pennsylvania.

The Spartans fell to 5-5 this season, while the Pioneers improved to 8-4.

Stats and Standouts

• Junior Sienna Olson led the squad with 14 kills, followed by first-year Maya Zarow (13 kills), junior Madeline Halter (10 kills), and first-year Ava Felgar (10 kills)
• Defensively, senior Sude Naz Item had a team-high 14 digs with junior Sophia Datto adding nine and Zarow contributing eight
• Junior Avery Basinger assisted on 23 points and first-year Piper Starling had 20 assists
• Felgar added four service aces and three total blocks to tie Zarow with 15.5 points

First Set (21-25)

• Neither team led by more than two points in the tightly contested first set until the Spartans won three consecutive points on kills by Olson and sophomore Isabel Haytayan and a block by Felgar and senior Emily Goodpaster
• Marietta tied the score at 21 with four points in a row
• A service error and service ace put the Spartans up by two, and after a Marietta kill, kills by Halter and Felgar gave CWRU a 21-18 advantage
• The Pioneers won the final seven points of the set to come from behind and take a 1-0 lead in the match

Second Set (25-9)

• The Spartans won six consecutive points on the service of Starling to lead 8-2
• After two Marietta points, CWRU won seven rallies in a row on the service of Zarow to extend their edge to 11, 15-4
• Case Western Reserve ended the set on an 8-1 run, concluding the stanza with an ace by Felgar and kill by Halter to even the match score at one

Third Set (16-25)

• Ahead 10-9 in the pivotal third set, Marietta went on a 5-0 run to take a six-point edge
• A kill and an ace by Felgar brought the Spartans within four, 15-11, but that would be the smallest deficit for the rest of the set
• Leading 18-14, the Pioneers won seven of the last nine points to win the set

Fourth Set (32-34)

• Leading by one, 10-9, Marietta won four consecutive points to increase its edge to five
• Later in the set, CWRU used a kill by Olson and back-to-back kills by senior Katie Yanni to cut the deficit to just one, 18-17
• The teams traded the next eight points before a Pioneer attacking error tied the score at 22
• Marietta won the next two points to serve for the set ahead 24-22
• The Spartans fought off two set points, leveling the score at 24 with two kills by Olson
• A Marietta error gave the Spartans the opportunity to clinch the set but a service error and attacking error put the Pioneers ahead 26-25
• CWRU tied the score at 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30, fighting off set points in each instance
• A service ace from Halter helped CWRU regain the lead, 31-30, but a service error and Marietta kill flipped the advantage in favor of the Pioneers, 32-31
• A service error tied the score at 32
• Marietta won the final two points to close the marathon set and the match

Spartan Notes

• CWRU fell to 5-5 since 2005 against Marietta, dropping the previous two meetings
• Zarow extended her streak of matches with at least 10 kills to 10
• With her 18th assist in the match, Basinger surpassed 1,000 career assists, becoming the 16th player in program history to reach the milestone and the first since Carly Scott in 2024
• CWRU hit .254 in the set, compared to .287 for Marietta
• The Spartans had 11 service aces, tied for the most by the team in a match this season
• The 66 combined points in the fourth set are the most in a CWRU match since September 23, 2015, when the Spartans dropped the first set of a five-set loss to Baldwin Wallace, 34-32

Up Next

The Spartans will wrap up play at the tournament with a pair of matches on Saturday, facing Mount St. Joseph at 10 a.m. and Thiel at 2 p.m.