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CHARLESTON, Ill. - Senior
Bailey Nichol recorded a triple double as Morehead State volleyball rallied from a 2-0 deficit to down Eastern Illinois on the road. It marked the second straight night that the Eagles fell behind 2-0 and came back to force a fifth set, but this time they came out on top with a 15-10 win.
With the win, the Eagles move to 8-13 on the year and even their record in OVC play at 4-4.
"There are plenty of lessons for us to take out of this match. Some of them we need to build on, others that we need to fix," said head coach
Jaime Gordon. "This was a solid team performance offensively. We were able to score points in a lot of different ways from a lot of different people. In the final three sets, we were effective attacking gaps in their block and mixing in a lot of off-speed shots. EIU played very low error volleyball today which forced our transition offense to step up and earn points."
After falling in the first two sets, Morehead State roared back with a 25-19 win in the third and a 25-15 win in the fourth set to force the fifth. They got out to an early lead in the final set, but were forced to call a timeout after EIU trimmed their lead to 10-9. Following the timeout, sophomore
Jordan Jones and freshman
Karlee Reynolds recorded kills to build the lead back to 12-9 and then sophomore
Merideth Jewell recorded back-to-back kills to win it, 15-10.
Nichol led the way for the Eagles with her third career triple-double. She finished with a career-high 60 assists and a career-high 11 kills, while adding 14 digs. She also hit an impressive .259.
"This is the type of complete game that we need to get from Bailey," said Gordon. "A triple-double is hard to get, but I know that she is capable of many more of these type of performances."
Jewell finished with a team-high 23 kills and a .210 hitting efficiency, while also recording 18 digs.
Overall, the Eagles had four players finish with double-digit kills as Reynolds added 12 and sophomore
Maddie Fella added ten. Fella hit .369, while Reynolds hit .333.Â
Morehead State finished with a season-high 81 kills and hit .237 as a team, while EIU had 50 kills and hit .201. The Eagles also had a season-high 99 digs, led by freshman
Danielle McCarson's 26, to Eastern Illinois' 80.
The Eagles return home next weekend for the first of six consecutive matches at Wetherby Gym.
"It will be nice to return home for this homestand, but we need to be ready to take full advantage of it by getting better every day in the gym," added Gordon.
They host UT Martin on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET and then Southeast Missouri at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon.
