Santana, Shang Reach 1,000 Career Digs as Volleyball Roars Past the Bears, 3-1

SWARTHMORE, Pa. - In the 60-year history of the Swarthmore College volleyball program, only four individuals have recorded 1,000 career digs. On Tuesday night from Tarble Pavilion against Ursinus (7-5, 0-2 CC), two seniors reached the feat in the same match.

Seniors Hillary Santana (30 digs) Lisa Shang (12 digs) each reached the 1,000-dig plateau as the Garnet (10-2, 1-0 CC) routed the Bears 3-1 (25-14, 25-15, 20-25, 25-8) in the Garnet's Centennial Conference opener.

Santana and Shang are the fifth and sixth Garnet players in program history to reach 1,000 digs and the first since teammate Genny Pezzola reached the mark last season. Pezzola is also closing in on a career milestone, falling only three kills short of surpassing the Swarthmore kills record on Tuesday night.  Pezzola now sits at 1,115 kills.

Despite a slow start, going down 5-3 early in game one, Swarthmore put it together and dominated the rest of the game winning it 25-14.

Game two started off the same way as Swat found itself in an early 8-2 hole before beginning a run of its own and scoring 12 of the next 14 points to regain a solid lead that would stick for a 25-15 game two win. 

Ursinus' pressure continued in game three and finally paid off as the Bears managed to squeak one past the Garnet, taking game three 25-20.

Sensing its frustration after game three, head coach Harleigh Chwastyk calmed the team down before the start of game four and whatever she said, it worked.

Swarthmore gave up the first three points of the fourth set but rallied back to take the next 20 of 21 points to take a huge 20-4 lead. 

Sophomore Danielle and freshman Kate Amodei led the way in the rally.  Sullivan started it off with a kill and went on to serve for eight straight points. One point later, a kill by sophomore Brone Lobichusky set up Amodei who served for nine straight Swat points. 

The Garnet went on to win the game 25-8 and the match 3-1.

Swarthmore put up big numbers over the four sets as three players hit double-digit kills and five hit double-digit digs.

Pezzola led the way up front with 14 kills but freshman Danielle Delpeche followed closely behind with 12 kills.  Sophomores Danielle Sullivan (11) and Brone Lobichusky (8) combined for 19 kills.

Allie Coleman once again reigned supreme with 44 assists in the match, posting 17 more assists than the Bears' team total (27).  Coleman also managed to add six kills and hit .417.

On defense, Santana was a machine, picking up an amazing 30 digs.  Pezzola followed with 14 digs to add to her 14 kills while Shang and Sullivan added 12 digs apiece.

Coleman was all over the floor, compiling 10 digs to add to her already impressive game at the net.

Pezzola will look to break the Swarthmore kills record on Friday, September 23rd when the Garnet travel to York College for the York College Spartan Invitational.  Swat takes on Centenary (N.J.) at 5:00 PM.