COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus women's volleyball team treated the home-opening crowd in Helfferich Hall to a straight-set 3-0 (25-13, 25-16, 25-16) over Neumann on Tuesday night in non-conference action.
 
 
With the win, the Bears continue their best start to a season in over 20 years by improving to 4-0 overall. Meanwhile, the Knights of the Atlantic East fell to 0-5 overall.
 
 
Sophomore Caroline Sherman recorded a team-high 11 kills while tallying a sizzling .579 hitting percentage. Sherman also was strong on the defensive front for the Bears by adding a career-high six blocks along with three digs while adding three aces as well. Senior Katie Cressman continued her all-around standout play with eight kills, eight digs, one block, and one ace. First-year Noelle Smits impressed in her Helfferich Hall debut by notching six kills, five blocks, and two aces while classmate Reena Robinson added five digs, four aces, and three kills in the win. Sophomore Rachel Bernard paced the offense with a team-high 12 assists and classmate Luca Walborn complimented with eight assists.
 
 
The Bears came out red-hot to start in the first set as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead behind a trio of kills. Neumann closed back in by making it a 6-4 contest before the Bears rattled off 11-straight points to take a commanding 17-4 lead. After an attack error gave the Bears the ball to serve, Robinson rattled off all 11 points for the Bears with four of them being aces. Ursinus continued to pull away in the first set as they stretched their lead out by as many as 15 at 23-8 before holding off a late spurt from the Knights to win set one, 25-13.
 
 
Neumann used momentum from a strong end to set one to take the first two points of the second set, but the Bears snatched it right back by winning seven of the next nine points to go up 7-4. Smits powered the run with two kills and closed the run with two aces. Each team went back and forth over the next three points before the Bears again put together a run with five-straight points to go up 13-6. Neumann was able to pull back within five points at 17-12 behind a kill and an ace, but the Bears stopped any potential big run once more by winning three-straight points to go up 21-13. Ursinus closed the set out go up 2-0 in the match after taking advantage of a pair of Knights errors in the final four points earned.
 
Just like the first set, the Bears stormed out of the gates in the third set by going up 6-1. The Knights won six of the next seven points to cut the lead down to 7-6 before Cressman ended the run with a kill. The kill from Cressman sparked the Bears winning eight of the next 11 points to go up 15-9 on the Knights. Following back-to-back points from the Knights, Ursinus put both the set and the match away by winning six-straight points to go up 21-11 behind three aces from Sherman. The Bears then won the last two points of the match to finish things off.
 
The Bears held the Knights to hit just -.055 as a team while tallying a .212 attack percentage themselves. Ursinus dominated the net by racking up 18 blocks as a team to the Knights four. Ursinus also added 14 aces on the evening.
 
Lauren Garvey and Regan Hickey each led the Knights with six kills while Dani Smith recorded 10 assists to lead the team.
 
Ursinus returns to action on Thursday, September 8th as they will travel to the Palestra in Philadelphia to take on Rutgers-Camden at 7 p.m.