By Max Ferguson, Staff Writer
Since their first recorded encounter in 2002, Gettysburg has never lost to the Ursinus Bears in volleyball. On Saturday, the Bullets continued their flawless win streak against Ursinus College, bringing the all-time record to 22-0. Ursinus was not going down without a fight though. They did their best to keep it close with the Bullets and even managed to take one of the sets. However, they proved no match for the number two ranked team in the Centennial Conference, as Gettysburg came out victorious with a 3-1 victory.
The first few rallies of the match seemed worrisome. Ursinus struck first off of a Gettysburg error and then followed it up with an ace. Gettysburg also got their first point off an error, followed by two more. The Bullets then found their footing and blew the set wide open with a nine-point scoring run that Ursinus was not able to recover from. The Bears were only able to score one point at a time for the rest of their set. Gettysburg continued their dominance with a number of back-to-back scoring runs that led them to take the first set 25-12.
For the second set, Ursinus went with an almost entirely new lineup and the Bullets rested some of their starters as well. The call to the bench seemed to work in their favor, as the Bullets were much more dominant in this set than the one before it. Gettysburg looked like they were going to have a repeat of the first set, as they went on a five-point run. However, that is the only major scoring run they had in the set. Ursinus was able to capitalize on errors made by the Bullets and the Bears scored well when they served. Ursinus went on to win the set 25-16.
Gettysburg regrouped and was ready to strike back in the third set. This set was more of what is expected from Bullet’s volleyball. The Bullets started out hot with a comfortable 7-2 lead. Ursinus answered with five straight points to tie the set at seven. After going back and forth, the Bullets had two back-to-back runs for three points apiece, separated by Ursinus scoring three of their own. Near the end of the set, the Bears came up with six unanswered points that put them ahead 21-20. However, the Bullets were not going to give up the set that easy and found a way to shut down Ursinus’s comeback effort with five unanswered points of their own. The set closed out 25-20 in favor of the orange and blue.
Gettysburg was eager to close the door on this game by the time the fourth set rolled around. After some back-and-forth scoring exchanges with Ursinus, the Bullets propelled themselves ahead with an eight-point run, which put them ahead 12-7. The rest of the set was more of the same back and forth as before, but Gettysburg now had the lead in the race to 25 points. The bullets called the game off of an error from Ursinus. The 25-16 set win gave Gettysburg the victory on the day.
Kylie Ulrich ’24 has time and time again proved that she is a qualified leader of this team. She led the team in kills with 14 and put up five blocks as well. Thankfully, such talent is not rare on this team. Mary Huegel ’26 is ready to pick up the torch as a team leader from Ulrich upon her graduation this year. Huegel had 11 kills of her own and tied Ulrich for block leader with five.
