Volleyball rallies from behind to beat Akron, falls to ETSU

STATS ( AKRON | ETSU )

MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State volleyball team rallied from two sets down to beat Akron and then fell to East Tennessee State, 3-1, in their first two games of the Comfort Inn-Vitational at Wetherby Gym. They came from behind to beat Akron 23-25, 16-25, 25-21, 28-26, 16-14, and lost to ETSU 25-20, 25-16, 21-25, 27-25.

In the first match, the Eagles quickly fell behind 2-0 after losing the second set quite convincingly, 25-16. But, they would bounce back to win the third and then avoid an Akron match point in the fourth and go on to win that set, 28-26, and force a pivotal fifth. They would rally for the first four points in the fifth set before Akron answered with six of their own to regain the lead at 6-4. Neither team would build a bigger lead than two points in the fifth and a kill by Merideth Jewell put the Eagles up 15-14 before an attack error by Akron's Amanda Bedell would give MSU a 16-14 set win and a 3-2 match win.

"Our team showed a lot of character today," said head coach Jaime Gordon. "I'll be honest it's really hard to win when you serve and pass like we did today, but I give a lot of credit to our team for finding different ways to score. We blocked well, we had a balanced offense, and we had some different people step up."

Freshman Jordan Jones, who was inserted into the lineup at the start of the second set, struggled early, but really settled in and gave the Eagles a spark. She finished the game with a team-high 28 assists, and also added nine kills, while hitting an impressive .538.

"I have no concerns about going to Jordan Jones to run our offense even though she's a freshman because she's been making such great strides," said Gordon. "She gave us a really good net presence, she had a lot of kills and all of a sudden they had to change some things defensively which opened up some other attackers. She also had a great blocking presence and got us some points off of blocks. She did a really nice job today."

Fellow freshman Merideth Jewell continued her strong play with a team-high 21 kills, while hitting .207. Junior Sydney Schuler added nine kills of her own and hit .250.

In the second match, MSU once again fell behind 2-0 and tried to make another rally. They won the third set 25-21, but fell in the fourth, 27-25.

The Eagles out-killed the Bucs 59-49, hit .282 to their .250, and had more digs, 64-50.

Senior Hannah Sigala led the way for MSU with 14 kills on just 19 attempts, which was good for .579. Her 14 kills were just one off of her season-high of 15 against Lehigh. Jewell added 15 kills and Schuler added 12, while Jones had another strong match with 45 assists and eight kills. 

Morehead State closes out the Comfort Inn-Vitational tomorrow against Samford at 1:30 p.m. Live stats will be available at MSUEagles.com.