ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Tufts 3-2 in its first match on Saturday at the East-West Battle hosted by Washington University, but couldn't duplicate the feat against Emory in the nightcap as it fell 3-1 (28-26 in the fourth). 

Set scores were 25-17. 23-25, 18-25, 25-14, 15-7 against Tufts, and 28-30, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26 in a very evenly played nightcap. With the split, CMS moves to 4-2 on the young season, after going 2-1 at each of its first two tournaments. The Athenas were 2-1 at the Pacific Coast Classic last week, and then went 2-1 at the East-West Battle, after defeating Trinity yesterday in the opener. 

CMS won the first set against Tufts 25-17 before dropping the next two sets, and then turned it up to another gear in the fourth and fifth for 25-14 and 15-7 wins. The Athenas used a 5-0 run to take a 10-4 lead in the third, keyed by three straight kills from Brooke McKee, who had a match-high 15. 

After Tufts got back within 10-6, CMS went on a dominant 11-0 run to pull away. Dani Beder had two straight blocks early in the run, and McKee had four service aces in a span of six points, around kills from Shae Delany and Georgia McGovern. Solvej Eversoll had blocks for the final two points of the set, combining with McGovern for the 24th point and Bell for the 25th. 

CMS kept the momentum going early in the fifth, jumping out to a 3-0 lead on kills from Eversoll and Bell. Another 3-0 run made it 6-1, with Eversoll and McKee getting kills. Samantha Riter had a service ace on yet another 3-0 run to make it 11-3 and McGovern finished it off with an ace. 

Delany had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs, while Dede Carranza had 25 digs and Beder finished with eight blocks defensively. 

In the nightcap, Bell had a career high 24 kills, passing her old high of 18 which she set twice, including the NCAA Regional finals as a freshman. However, Emory was able to come away with the four-set win in a very tight battle. 

CMS won the first set 30-28 after fighting off four set points, the first two on McGovern kills and the third when a dig from Ashley Murashige fell over the net for a kill. McKee had a kill to make it 29-28 and the Eagles had an attack error to give the first set to the Athenas. Emory took the second set 25-22 and then Delany tied the third set 23-23 with a kill before the Eagles earned the next two points. 

Bell had her 24th kill to give CMS a 26-25 lead in the fourth, hoping to push the match to a fifth, but Emory came through with three straight kills for the win. 

Bell hit .447 on the day, with 24 kills and only three errors in 47 attempts. Bder had nine kills in 19 attempts for a .474 percentage, while McGovern had 42 assists and 16 digs, while Carranza had 23 digs and Delany added 17. 

CMS will be back in action at the California Lutheran Invitational, meeting Puget Sound, East Texas Baptist and Whitworth.