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MOREHEAD, Ky.—Morehead State's volleyball team opened the 2009 season with a pair of 3-0 sweeps over James Madison (25-23, 25-17, 25-15) and Chattanooga (25-15, 25-17, 25-19) Friday in its own Comfort Inn & Suites Volleyball Classic. The Eagles mathematically clinched the tournament title with the victories.
MSU opened the tournament Friday morning with a decisive sweep of the JMU Dukes. Led by strong season-opening performances by juniors
Holly Evans and
Kaitlin Craven, the Eagles survived a close 25-23 set one before cruising to 25-17 and 25-15 wins in sets two and three. Evans had a match-high nine kills and seven blocks, hitting .263 and Craven hit .240 with eight kills.
Junior
Kirstie Brangers had match highs in assists (27) and aces (3). Senior
Kristina Schoo had a match-high 13 digs.
Danielle Erb led JMU with seven kills and Kelly Turner had six kills and hit .400. Lauren Fanelli registered 10 assists for the Dukes. Defensively, Erb and Jessica Zeroual each had four blocks and Lindsay Callahan tallied nine digs.
The Eagles were extremely tough at the net on defense as they chalked up 18 block assists and 10 total team blocks. Besides Evans' numbers, freshman middle blocker
Annie Gruenschlaeger notched six blocks. The Eagle defense forced the Dukes to hit only .057 for the three-set contest. MSU hit .239 and had nine service aces.
In the nightcap, the Eagles again got a balanced effort on offense and kept the pressure on the Mocs with 16 block assists and eight team blocks. Chattanooga hit only .094 for the match.
Freshman outside hitter
Ellie Roberson led the Eagles with 12 kills, while Craven and Evans had nine and eight respectively. On the back row, Schoo topped MSU with 12 digs, while red shirt junior
Lindsey Ruddell came up with a career high 10.
Gruenschlaeger, Evans and red shirt sophomore
Emma Keough had four blocks each. Gruenschlaeger hit .429 for the match with eight kills. Courtney Barnes led the Mocs with 11 kills and a .316 attakc percentage.
The Eagles hit more efficiently than the morning match as well, finishing with a .300 attack percentage. MSU had 44 kills and only 11 errors. Both teams tallied 48 digs.
In the other matches during the first day, Chattanooga topped ETSU 3-1 and James Madison
also beat ETSU 3-1.
Morehead State faces ETSU on Saturday at 2 p.m. Chattanooga and James Madison face off at 11:30 a.m.
