Volleyball downs Canisius, falls to Marshall to open season

CANISIUS STATS | MARSHALL STATS

MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State volleyball team opened its season with a three-set sweep of Canisius and then fell to Marshall 3-0 in the night cap. The Eagles won the opener 25-22, 25-16, 28-26 and lost to Marshall 25-16, 25-15, 25-19.

MSU entered last season winners of four straight OVC Championships, but finished 3-28. Head coach Jaime Gordon spoke about the importance of starting the season off with a victory.

"It's great (to start off with a win)," said Coach Jaime Gordon. "I'm not going to lie and say it's not a relief for some of our returners to get back on track."

Throughout the preseason, Gordon spoke predominantly about his team's mixture of youth and experience. That proved true on Friday afternoon as freshman outside hitter Merideth Jewell and senior middle blocker Hannah Sigala combined for 27 kills and committed just five errors. Sigala hit a team-best .562 and the team hit .298 overall.

"The story of this team is the combination of talented youth and experienced leadership," said Gordon. "Both Hannah (Sigala) and Merideth (Jewell) exemplify that in both of the classes."

In the match against Marshall, the Eagles scored the first three points in the first set, but battled from behind the rest of the night. Trailing two sets to none and 19-13 in the third set, the Eagles rallied with five straight points, but they would manage just one more point the rest of the way as the Thundering Herd closed out the set, and the game, 25-19.

After hitting .298 in the opener, MSU managed to hit just .074 against Marshall. Marshall finished the game hitting .227 and were led by junior outside hitter Cassie Weaver and sophomore outside hitter Taylor Pelton, who had 12 and seven kills respectively.

The Eagles were once again led by Sigala, who finished the match with 10 kills on 15 attacks.

"Hannah (Sigala) was once again very effective offensively. Unfortunately we weren't able to get her the ball as much as we needed to," said Gordon on the loss to Marshall. "We were playing out of position a little more than we'd like to, but credit that to Marshall."

Morehead State was forced to play the majority of the game without junior libero Hope Rilemma, after she suffered an injury in the first set. But, Gordon was happy with the way that freshman Alyssa Cecil stepped up.

"She did a great job and she showed a lot of composure. But, it's nothing that surprises us," he said. "I was really happy to see the job that she did today."

Jewell and Cecil weren't the only freshmen to contribute as setter Jordan Jones also played quality minutes. 

"You only get one Division I opening day," Gordon said of his freshmen. "But, now you have experience under your belt and that's the way we look at it. They're experienced now and now the expectations go up."

Morehead State closes out the Eagle Challenge tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 p.m. against Indiana State (1-1).