Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Austin Peay
Racers Fall in Five Sets to Austin Peay
10/23/2010 6:07:11 PM | Women's Volleyball
Senior Ashley Nenninger led the team with 16 kills, four blocks and a .324 (16k-4e-37ta) hitting percentage. Fellow senior Sara Hayden added a .444 (8k-0e-18ta) attack percentage and two blocks. Junior Kayleah Sauer led a trio of players with 10+ digs, with 20.
The Racers started the first set by taking an early 7-3 lead and then built the advantage to eight (13-5) before the Lady Govs went on a 10-2 run that tied the set at 15. The teams traded the next four serves before a service ace by freshman Katlyn Hudson allowed MSU to go on a 2-0 run to take control of the scoreboard for good. After allowing the Lady Govs to garner one more point the Racers closed out the set with a 6-0 run to earn the 25-18 win.
The second set saw the same start, as MSU went up 7-4. However, the Lady Govs went on a 5-0 run to take a 10-8 lead and never let the Racers get closer than one point the rest of the set on their way to a 25-17 win.
APSU took an early lead in the third set, but MSU fought back to tie it in the first half of action and then take a 16-14 advantage. However, a 4-2 run by the Lady Govs tied the set at 18 again. The Racers went up 19-18, but APSU countered with a 5-0 run to take control of the set for good and went on to earn the 20-25 win.
The Racers took an early 3-0 lead in the fourth set and held on to the advantage until APSU used an 5-1 run to take a 7-8 lead. MSU followed with a 2-0 run that gave them the lead for the rest of the set. The Racers tallied two or three points in-a-row for most of the rest of the set, while only allowing the Lady Govs to garner one point at a time and earned the 25-16 win to force the fifth and deciding set.
The fifth set was an image of the entire match, with nine tie scores and five lead changes throughout the battle. No team led by more than two points and after earning a lead the opposing team would go on a run to tie the score. The final tie came at 13, before the Lady Govs used strong serving to earn the 13-15 victory.
The Racers had a season-best 13 blocks (5-16), with the Lady Govs tallying six. MSU also out-hit APSU, .219 (56k-23e-151ta) to .170 (51k-24e-159ta) and out-dug them 67-63. The only area on the stat sheet that APSU had an advantage was a small 8-10 lead in service aces.
The Racers will hit the road for two mid-week matches before returning to Racer Arena. MSU will first travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to face Southeast Missouri, Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. The Racers will also battle with SIU Edwardsville, Thursday, Oct. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in Edwardsville, Ill.
Notes: Junior Kayleah Sauer moved up one more spot on the all-time digs list at MSU…she now has 1,470 digs and is in 6th place on the list…senior Sara Hayden is one block assist away from moving into 3rd on the career list and three more blocks away from claiming 4th on the total block list.
