The GW women’s volleyball team moved one step closer to clinching a spot in the Atlantic 10 tournament Saturday, gathering a two-game lead over Duquesne by sweeping the Dukes in three games at the Smith Center.

With only four conference games remaining, the Colonials (15-10, 6-4 A-10) hold the critical fourth spot in the A-10 standings. Only the conference’s top four teams move on to the tournament, which will be Nov 22-23 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The winner of that tournament receives an automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament.

A tourney berth would mark an incredible turn around from last year’s ninth-place team that did not advance. Two years ago the Colonials won the conference tournament to get an NCAA tournament bid. After five starting seniors graduated from the 1999 championship team, the 2001 squad was in a rebuilding year.

After slacking a bit in the last two games, GW’s offense got back on track, out killing the Dukes 59-41 and hitting twice as efficient as Duquesne in every game. This is compared to the Colonials loss against Dayton last Friday when the Flyers out killed 69-65 and out hit GW .310 to .202.

Junior co-captain Sarah Hokom led a balanced offensive attack for GW with her match-high 15 kills and 14 digs. Hokom leads the team in kills with 4.11 kills per game and 370 total kills.

But Hokom had plenty of help Saturday as three other Colonials registered kill totals in the double-digits. Freshman Lindsey Vernand continued her impressive streak with 14 kills, while junior Ruth Lazzari and sophomore Molly Law notched 14 and 10 respectively.

–Lauren Silva