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EDWARDSVILLE, Ill - Morehead State's Annie Gruenschlaeger, Aryn Bohannon and Laura McDermott combined for 29 kills and only four errors as the Eagle volleyball team opened a three-match Ohio Valley Conference road trip with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-19) victory at SIU Edwardsville's Vadalabene Center Friday night.
The Eagles' first-ever match at new OVC foe SIUE resulted in MSU's 22nd win in its last 23 overall conference matches and boosted its conference mark to 5-0 this year while upping the overall record to 10-5. The Cougars fell to 7-11 and 2-4 in the OVC.
Gruenschlaeger, a junior middle blocker who has seen her playing time limited by an injury this year, came off the bench to provide eight kills on just nine total attempts. She didn't make an error, hitting a team and career-high .875. Redshirt freshman middle blocker McDermott added eight kills with just two miscues (.333 hitting) and five blocks, and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Bohannon landed 13 winners off 25 swings while hitting .440. The OVC's kill leader, junior outside hitter Ellie Roberson, produced 15 successful swings.
As a team, MSU leads the conference in kills, hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage and those figures all held true on Friday. The Eagles hit .316, including .432 with 21 kills in the third frame, and had 58 total kills. The Eagle defense out-dug the Cougars 52-31 and held the host team to just a .131 attack efficiency.
Sophomore libero Leslie Schellhaas contributed a team-best 12 digs, while junior setter Caitlin Clark registered her fifth double-double of the year via 38 assists and 11 digs. She also had three blocks.
Emma Anderson and Kelsey Augustine led the Cougars with six kills apiece.
MSU trailed early in the first set but a 5-0 run broke a 5-5 tie and put MSU in control. SIUE came back to tie the set again at 21-all, but kills by Gruenschlaeger and Bohannon propelled the Eagles to a 4-1 run to end the set on top 25-22.
The Eagles raced out to a 10-3 advantage early in the second stanza and never looked back, landing 16 kills and hitting .314 while pulling away for the 13-point win.
The Cougars kept pace with the Eagles for most of the third frame. However, a 4-0 run with the set tied at 17 gave MSU the needed boost to put the match away. Bohannon had a pair of kills in the flurry, and Gruenschlaeger teamed with redshirt senior middle blocker Emma Keough on a key block.
The Eagles stay on the road Saturday as they face Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. ET in Charleston, Ill. Live stats will be available via
www.msueagles.com.
