Noah Fries | staff writer

The Duquesne volleyball team fell twice in hard-fought, five-set matches to conference rival George Washington at Charles E. Smith Center in Washington, D.C., over the weekend.

The two losses take the Dukes’ record to 17-12, with an even 9-9 record in A10 play to end the regular season. Despite the weekend results, Duquesne clinched the No. 6 seed in the A10 Championships this coming weekend.

Sophomore outside hitter Emersen Schrom was again the standout for the Dukes, tallying 51 kills, 16 digs and three service aces over the weekend. Senior right-side hitter Carsyn Henschen added 20 kills and four blocks.

In the first match of the weekend, the Dukes and the Revolutionaries were playing side-out volleyball for a large portion of the first set before a 4-0 service run by Duquesne junior setter Chloe Wilmot — including three straight service aces — gave the Dukes a 20-17 advantage that would lead to a 25-20 set win.

The Dukes led wire-to-wire in set two with Schrom, Henschen and senior middle blocker Ariel Helm leading the charge. George Washington had a four-point run late in the set, but it wouldn’t be enough as Duquesne took its second straight 25-20 set victory, needing just one more set win to take the match.

However, the Revolutionaries weren’t ready to concede the match. Taking advantage of 10 attacking errors from Duquesne — who lost freshman outside hitter Karli Jordan to a torn ACL in the set — George Mason was able to take the third set 25-18.

The fourth set was much more back-and-forth, with the teams trading points until Duquesne had a match point at 25-24 before the Revolutionaries battled back with a 3-0 run to steal the set from the Dukes — pushing the match to a pivotal fifth set.

Short bursts from both teams had the fifth set knotted at eight before two quick runs for the Revolutionaries gave them a 15-9 victory, completing the reverse sweep.

Schrom led Duquesne with 27 kills, the only Duke to reach double figures. She also added 11 digs, resulting in her 13th double-double of the year. Helm added nine kills and four blocks, with a solo block in the third set making her the all-time blocks leader in program history.

“We battled really hard,” Head Coach Steve Opperman said. “GW made a few more good plays at the end, but we really competed and battled. I thought we did a really nice job in that aspect.”

The second match of the weekend was another five-set marathon that was an almost perfect reversal from the night prior.

Instead of the first two sets going to Duquesne, the Revolutionaries came out on top in the first two sets of their Senior Day, 25-19 and 25-17.

Like George Washington the night prior, however, the Dukes roared back in the third set. Dominance at the service line, including five service aces, set the standard for Duquesne in pushing to a 25-22 victory.

A late 4-0 service run in the fourth set by senior defensive specialist Maggie Colenbrander — who had six aces of her own in the match — gave the Dukes a 20-14 advantage that would lead to a 25-18 set win and another crucial fifth set.

Unfortunately for Duquesne, George Washington wouldn’t quit. Despite a 6-4 early lead in the set for the Dukes, a 7-0 run for the Revolutionaries quickly put the match out of reach. George Washington would go on to win the match with a 15-10 set victory.

Schrom led the Dukes with 24 kills, with Henschen adding 11 and junior outside hitter Kylie Griffin tallying 10. Wilmot tallied 42 assists and six digs, while senior libero Madison Grimm posted a team-high 18 digs.

With her 11th kill of the match, Schrom wrote her name in the Duquesne record books by setting the program single-season kill record with 485, surpassing Amanda Haeg’s mark of 470 in 2006.

“It’s just a cool accomplishment,” Schrom said. “I honestly didn’t even know about it until Coach [Opperman] brought it up at practice a few days ago. But, I’m also just thankful for my teammates — I think it’s an accomplishment for everyone, not just me.”

By clinching the No. 6 seed in the A10 Championships this weekend, the Dukes will look to get revenge on George Washington by playing them again on Friday in the quarterfinals.

Noah Fries can be reached at friesn@duq.edu