Goucher Ends Season with Three-Set Loss to Owls

BRYN MAWR, Pa. — Goucher closed the curtain on its 2014 season tonight with a three-set loss at Bryn Mawr. Set scores were 25-18, 25-13, 25-16.

Kelly Budge (Harrington Park, N.J./Northern Valley Old Tappan) came one dig shy of a double-double for the Gophers (9-22), finishing with a team-high 11 kills to go along with nine digs. Hannah Kuehl (Plymouth, N.H./Plymouth Regional) followed with six kills, while Val Kirsch (Westport, Conn./Staples) led the way with 14 digs. Kirsch ends the season with 10 or more digs in 11 of the season's last 12 matches.

Goucher took an early 6-5 advantage in the opening set after the first kill of the match for Budge. The Owls (11-15) would then rattle off the next three points and they did not trail again in the set.

Bryn Mawr never fell behind in the second set, and the Owls had a 3-1 lead to open up the third. The Gophers scored three of the next four points, capped off by a block from Budge and Michelle Tweedie (Accra, Ghana/Lincoln Community School), to grab a brief lead, and the set remained tight through the midway point. Bryn Mawr, though, went on a 7-1 run to extend a 12-11 lead up to 19-12, and the Owls were not threatened for the remainder of the match.

Sarah Johnson (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) had 20 assists tonight, finishing with 673 for the season and bringing her career total up to 2,241. She will enter her senior season 84 assists behind Laurie Bender for the third-most in program history.

Erika DiPasquale (Paramus, N.J./Paramus), meanwhile, added two more aces to bring her team-leading total to 67 for the season. That is 37 more than the next-highest total on the team, and it is the most for any Goucher player since Megan Chalk had 74 in 2012.