Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Volleyball Earns Four-Set Victory Over Eastern Illinois
9/22/2009 3:54:29 PM | Women's Volleyball
Junior Becca Lamb had an impressive performance for MSU, hitting a career-best .520 on 16 kills, just three errors and 25 attempts. Fellow junior Ashley Nenninger had a strong performance as well, with a season-high 17 kills. Nenninger also added seven digs and three block assists.
“Becca has put her playing time in as a freshman and sophomore,” said head coach David Schwepker. “I feel like she is now playing with more confidence and not reacting as much to mistakes.”
The Panthers (7-8, 1-2 OVC) opened the match with a 4-1 run that started with a service ace on the first point of the set. The Racers quickly gained their composure and used a 3-0 run to tie the set at four and then continued with a 6-1 run to gain the advantage on the scoreboard for the remainder of the set. MSU continued to push the momentum in its favor with several runs that helped the team earn a 25-17 win.
In the second set the Racers again found themselves down early (0-3). MSU fought back to pull within one point (3-4), but EIU kept a one to two-point lead until a kill by setter Jade Guo forced an eight-all tie. The teams traded the next four serves before the Racers took their first lead of the set, with a 2-0 run. The Panthers quickly countered with a 4-0 run of their own to push the lead back to their side of the scoreboard (12-14). MSU kept fighting and forced five more tie scores through the set, with the last coming at 24-all. EIU's Alex Zwettler earned the next point for the Panthers and a Racer error gave the 26-24 victory to EIU heading into the intermission.
The third set was a back-and-forth battle for control at the beginning, before the Panthers gained a six-point lead (12-6) when a dump-set kill from Guo ended a 4-0 EIU run. The DaTong, China, native helped to start an 8-2 run that forced a tie at 14. That is when the Racers took control of the set with a 7-1 run. MSU allowed the Panthers to score just five points after the 14-all tie the remainder of the set.
The final set looked like it would go in favor of EIU, as the Panthers again jumped out to an early lead (11-4). The Racers then slowly chipped away at the deficit with several two or three-point runs. The final momentum turn occurred with the scoreboard reading 22-16 in favor of EIU. MSU called a time out and then mounted their largest come-back of the season with an 8-1 rally that not only tied the set at 23, but gave the Racers a 24-23 lead. The run was book-ended by five-straight serves from sophomore Kayleah Sauer and three from sophomore Logan Su. Both teams then traded 2-0 runs, before Nenninger put the match away with two-straight kills to give MSU the 28-26 win.
The Racers had one of their strongest performances as a team during the 2009 campaign. The team combined for a season-best 59 kills and 55 assists. MSU also saw two of the best attack percentages in a set during sets one and two, hitting .464 and .452.
“I think that at the beginning of the match we came out with a lot of confidence,” said Schwepker. “Then later in the match we let it go a little, which is something that we need to change.”
After finally playing their first matches of the year in Racer Arena, the Racers return to the road for two OVC matches. MSU first battles Jacksonville State, Friday, Sep. 25 at 7 p.m. The team will look for revenge against Tennessee Tech after its five-set loss to the Golden Eagles in the 2008 OVC Tournament Championship Match when they head to the Eblen Center, Saturday, Sep. 26 for a 2 p.m. match.
Notes: Kayleah Sauer's 10+ dig streak is now up to 10 matches…Logan Su tallied a season-best nine digs, while adding a career-best two service aces…junior Sara Hayden recorded a career-high five block assists…the Louisville, Ky., native has now garnered 162 career total blocks and is just eight blocks away from moving up to the No. 9 position on the career total blocks list…she also just eight block assists away from the No. 10 spot on the career block assists list and five block solos from making the career block solo list (she has 41 and need 46).
Head Coach David Schwepker
“There are two things that I saw in this match that I really liked. First was when we were down 11-4 and 22-16 in the final set and we just kept fighting. We made some stupid errors, but they kept fight and didn't shut down. The second thing was that we made changes in huddles and the team listened and made the adjustments.”
