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MOREHEAD, Ky.--Morehead State volleyball cruised to its fifth straight Ohio Valley Conference win behind a potent offensive attack, sweeping Murray State 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 25-20) Saturday afternoon at Wetherby Gym. The Eagles hit .351 as a team, their best performance of the season.
Junior #Kaitlyn Craven’s
match-high 15 kills came with a hitting percentage of .400. Junior Holly Evans# hit .348, sophomore
Emma Keough hit .462 and freshman
Annie Gruenschlaeger hit a match-high .538. Only one MSU player had more than one attack error.
“Today was our best offensive effort of the season,” MSU coach
Jaime Gordon said. “We’ve now had back-to-back matches where we were strong offensively, and I credit our players for their hard work. It’s nice to see the results of that hard work.”
Set one was tied at 12 when kills from Keough and Craven and a Racer error gave the Eagles a three-point cushion that they maintained throughout the remainder of the set.
Trailing 6-5 in set two, MSU scored six of the next seven points on a pair of kills by Craven, a kill from Evans and back-to-back aces from junior
Kirstie Brangers. Another run, this one midway through the set and highlighted by another pair of kills from Craven gave the Eagles a 10-point lead and the eventual win.
Set three was tight from the get-go, but with MSU leading 22-20 and Brangers serving, Evans tallied a kill, followed by a pair of kills by freshman
Ellie Roberson to give Morehead State the match win.
Brangers finished with 38 assists and two aces. Senior
Kristina Schoo had 15 digs and Gruenschlaeger had a match-high five blocks.
Three Murray State players tallied a team-high seven kills, Logan Su, Teresa Krog and Mary Cunningham. Krog and Cunningham hit .429 and .462 respectively. Jade Guo had 23 assists and Kayleah Sauer tallied 19 digs.
Saturday’s match was also Morehead State’s Dig For a Cure day. The MSU staff and players all wore pink and Eagle volleyball took up donations for the American Cancer Society to support the fight against breast cancer.
“It was great to see our players, staff and fans all decked out in pink,” Gordon said. “It only strengthens our program when we can come together as a family and fight for such a worthy cause.”
Morehead State improved to 15-5 overall and 8-1 in the OVC. The Eagles have won 15 straight sets, dating back to the Eastern Illinois match when MSU won three after dropping the first set. Four straight 3-0 victories followed, setting up a showdown with league-leading Jacksonville State Friday in Jacksonville, Ala. at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Murray State falls to 3-15 overall and 3-5 in the OVC and will host Austin Peay Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern
