Smith and Jewell impress in three-set loss to EKU

STATS

RICHMOND, Ky. -  The Morehead State volleyball team had late leads in both the first and second sets, but were unable to close out either and fell to EKU in three sets in their first road conference match of the season. They lost 27-29, 22-25, 18-25.

While slow starts have hampered the Eagles at times this season, on Wednesday night at Alumni Coliseum, it was the inability to finish off sets.

"It's definitely a disappointing match for us," said head coach Jaime Gordon. "We put ourselves in position to win both the first and the second sets, and then had some fundamental breakdowns, which is a little bit different from where we've had our struggles earlier on. In some of those critical situations today we had drops in execution which didn't allow us enough point scoring opportunities."

Knotted at six in the first set, the Eagles scored seven straight points, six off of Merideth Jewell serves, and nine of ten overall to build a 15-7 lead. However, the Colonels would fight off five set points and eventually took the set, 29-27. In the second, EKU rode their first set momentum to a quick 5-1 lead, but this time the Eagles fought back. They got it even at 11 and there would be six ties the rest of the way. MSU built a lead late at 21-18, but the Colonels reeled off six straight to build a 24-21 lead and eventually took the set, 25-22. They then closed out the match with a 25-18 third set win.

Jewell and junior Courtney Smith both had strong performances for the Eagles. Jewell led the way with 15 kills, while hitting .195, and added 12 digs. Smith finished with 11 kills, while hitting an impressive .304, and led the team with 15 digs.

EKU finished with 36 kills, while hitting .170, compared to the Morehead State's 34, while hitting .044. But, their 29 errors were too much to overcome.

On Saturday, the Eagles return home for Senior Day, where they will honor their lone senior Hannah Sigala.

"We're looking forward to being able to honor Hannah and everything she's done for this program," said Gordon. "It will be an emotional match, as it always is when you're recognizing a player for all of their hard work and accomplishments."

Morehead State will face Austin Peay on Saturday at 2 p.m.