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MOREHEAD, Ky.—Three Marshall players registered double digit kills to lead the visiting Herd over Morehead State 3-1 (27-29, 25-17, 25-20, 25-21) Tuesday night at Wetherby Gymnasium.
The Eagles (7-4) held off a rally in set one and survived a back-and-forth final exchange to take a 1-0 match lead, but Marshall held the edge from that point on, winning the final three sets with constant offensive pressure. Kristin Marcum and Elizabeth Herman each had 14 kills and Emily Sullivan added 13. Sullivan and Herman each hit over .300 for the match.
“We played okay against a very good team,” said MSU coach
Jaime Gordon. “There were some things we need to work on, but there are a lot of positives to take away from tonight as well.”
Leading by just one point at 13-12 in set one, MSU rattled off the next seven points, including two aces from
Lindsey Ruddell to take a commanding 20-12 lead. The Herd rallied, scoring 11 of the next 14 points to tie the game at 23. The teams swapped points from there until a block by
Emma Keough and
Kirstie Brangers and a kill by
Kaitlin Craven broke a 27-all tie and gave Morehead the win.
Marshall (11-2) pulled away early in set two, but sets three and four were both close until the end.
“Matches against opponents like Marshall are important because they help us find potential issues and address them before we start conference play,” Gordon said. “We will work on some things and tweak some things and be a stronger team once we begin playing OVC opponents.”
Craven led the Morehead State attack with 14 kills. She also tallied 11 digs for a double-double.
Aryn Bohannon had nine kills and Keough and
Annie Gruenschlaeger hit .316 and .353 respectively. Brangers also notched 40 assists.
Keough led the front line defensive efforts with an impressive eight blocks.
Kristina Schoo and Brangers had 17 and 13 digs respectively to lead the Eagles defensively. Morehead collected 13.0 team blocks.
Marcum had 18 digs for the Herd and Ryanne Milligan had 14. Setter Elizabeth Fleming had 11 digs and contributed offensively with 45 assists. Herman had six blocks and Sullivan tallied four aces.
Tuesday marked Morehead State’s only home match in September. The Eagles, who have eight home matches in October, open Ohio Valley Conference play Friday night at Murray State at 8 p.m
