Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Racers Extend Winning Streak to Three with Victory Over Eastern Illinois
10/18/2008 5:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
“This was an excellent weekend for us,” said head coach David Schwepker. “I have been waiting for us to come together as a team. We were not perfect at the beginning of the season, but we continue to get better and I am really pleased with that team development.”
The Racers (9-11, 6-4 OVC) have claimed 3-0 victories in their last three matches and recorded a hitting percentage above .300 in the last two victories. MSU hit .347 (43k-8e-101ta) against the Panthers (4-16, 1-9 OVC), with only three of their errors not resulting from an EIU block.
“You are going to make errors no matter what team you are,” said Schwepker. “What we had been struggling with before were the mental errors, but we are working on eliminating those types of errors and that showed this weekend.”
The Racers were led by freshman Logan Su, who tallied 12 kills, a .345 (12k-2e-29ta) hitting percentage, two service aces, three digs, and one block assist. Su was one of eight hitters in the match for MSU to record at least one kill, with two more garnering eight ( Alison Mugler and Sara Hayden).
“As a coach you hope that you have a well rounded team so you can distribute the ball around and you don't have to rely on one person,” Schwepker added. “If that one person you rely on is having a bad day you fail as a team.”
Mugler and freshman Kayleah Sauer led the way defensively, with 13 and 14 digs, respectively. Sophomore Ashley Nenninger was the top producer at the net with five blocks, while freshman Jade Guo added four.
MSU started the opening set with a 4-1 deficit before rallying back to tie the set at six. The Panthers kept the score close for the next six points until the Racers started a 6-0 run with senior Heather Norris at the service line to take the lead for good. Norris rattled off a season-high three service aces during the span. MSU kept control of the set, only allowing the Panthers to add six more point to their total the rest of set.
EIU earned the first point of the second set with one of their five total team blocks, but the Racers quickly took control again and jumped out to a 6-2 advantage. MSU held the Panthers to the lowest number of points in a set this season, with 12. Mugler spent a lot of time at the service line for the Racers during the set, garnering 10 of the MSU's 24 serves.
Sauer then spent most of the time serving for the Racers in the third set, rattling off seven-straight servers at the beginning to help MSU jump out to a 7-1 lead. The libero then recorded three more serves in the middle of the set to put the led to eight (17-9).
Three MSU players, who have seen limited action so far this season, made an impact in the final set of the match, as freshmen Teresa Krog and Mary Cunningham, and junior Kelli Johnson all got into the match. Cunningham made her presence known immediately with a kill on her first attack attempt, while Krog connected on her lone attack of the day. Johnson may not have any stats on the score sheet, but her first serve was dug right back over the net where Su sent it straight to the ground for one of her 12 kills.
Serving and hitting errors seemed to be the key difference in the match, as MSU tallied six service aces to the Panthers one and committed only eight attack errors to EIU's 18.
The Racers will conclude a three-match home-stand Tuesday, Oct. 21 when they host UT Martin at 7 p.m.
Notes: Guo had a career-high .556 hitting percentage...Su tallied a career-best two service aces...MSU is now 2-0 when hitting above .300...Mugler is now in the No. 7 position on the MSU all-time kills list with 1,032...she needs 13 to pass Jessica Wood with 1,044...Norris needs just eight more service aces this season to be the sixth MSU player to tally 1,000 digs and 100 service aces.
Quotes
Head Coach David Schwepker
“We had a great serving day. What we really are trying to do serving are tactical things. We got some aces tonight with those tactical approaches.”
“If we are going to win and continue on this is the type of play that we need to continue.”
