Boston College volleyball’s Audrey Ross looms large on the left side. That was especially true on Friday night, as the outside hitter scored 17 points, the most by a BC player this season.
Ross made up nearly a third of BC’s points in the Eagles’ (7–0) shutout win over Sacramento State (3–5).
“[Ross] just plays pretty high,” BC head coach Jason Kennedy said. “We’re trying to play pretty fast. She’s able to elevate on the ball, hit the top of hands—something she’s been working on quite a bit in the offseason, so glad to see it start to pay off here.”
Ross scored her points off 16 kills and one service ace. She leads the Eagles in kills this season with 65, 22 more than Anna Herrington’s 43, which ranks second.
On the other side of the net, Victoria Marthaler and Ashlynn Archer combined for 26 of Sacramento’s 43 points.
After the Eagles won the first set 25–22, Bella Ehrlich and Sam Hoppes made a block on Marthaler to tie the game 18–18 late in the second set.
“We were able to dial in the blocking a little bit [and] start affecting what they wanted to do a little bit more,” Kennedy said. “And that kind of flipped the tide in our favor.”
Ehrlich and Hoppes made another block shortly after as the Eagles finished a 16–8 run to win the set.
“Anytime we can slow [our opponents] down, that’s gonna be good,” Kennedy said. “Bella, for a freshman, has just come in and done such an absolutely tremendous job. I know she was a little bit frustrated today because they had a really quick middle that was giving her some fits. But I think Bella’s just doing an awesome job adjusting to college.”
Erlich has started every game for BC and leads the team in blocks.
On Friday, that dominance helped her team to its sixth shutout in seven games. The Eagles remain undefeated ahead of their second home game of the season, which will come on Saturday when they host Dartmouth in the BC Invitational.
“It’s nice to be back, you know, I feel like we’ve been on the road for a bit,” Kennedy said. “[It] took us a little bit of time here to get comfortable back in this building. But it’s good to be able to sleep in my own bed and wake up there tomorrow morning.”
