Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Nenninger’s 1,000th Kill Helps Power Racers to Victory Over EKU at OVC Championship
11/18/2010 11:10:13 PM | Women's Volleyball
Nenninger tallied 18 kills, added two blocks, four digs and a .240 (18k-6e-50ta) hitting percentage. Fellow senior Sara Hayden added her third career double-double, with 10 kills and 13 digs. Junior Jade Guo recorded her 10th double-double of the year (50 assists, 15 digs). Junior Kayleah Sauer led the team defensively with 25 digs to lead four players with double-digit dig totals.
The teams traded the first six points of the opening set before the Racers went on the first run to earn a 5-3 advantage. The push was all that MSU needed in the set, as they held the Colonels to a single point at a time for the next few serves and for most of the set. The Racers built their lead out to as many as six points in the set, including reaching a 24-18 lead. EKU did not quit and held off match point for three points before MSU earned the 25-21 win on a kill by Nenninger.
The second set started with a Colonel 3-0 run, but the Racers quickly tied the set at four and then took an 8-5 advantage with strong serving. Freshman Katlyn Hudson gave MSU the lead with two-straight service aces. The Racers held on to the advantage until EKU tied the set at 11, with two-straight service aces of its own. The teams traded serves for the next three points before the Colonels went on a 5-0 run to take the lead for good. EKU went on one short run through the rest of the set, with the teams siding out the rest of the way. The advantage was enough to tie the match at one-set a piece, with a 19-25 Colonel win.
The first three points of the third set were traded before MSU went on a 4-0 run to take the lead for good. EKU fought hard throughout the set and cut the lead to one (10-9), with a 3-0 run, but that was as close as the Racers let them get. MSU built its lead to as many as five points in the set with small runs. The Colonels made a final push at the end of the set to get back within one (23-22), but the Racers kept fighting and ended the set on a kill by Hayden for the 25-23 win.
Nenninger started the scoring in the fourth set for MSU and recorded her 1,000th career kill in the process. She became the 10th MSU player to accomplish the feat and the second during the 2010 campaign.
EKU came out strong in the fourth set and quickly built a 1-4 advantage that they held until late in the set. The Colonels built the lead out to as many as six points late in the set (14-20), using several small runs. That is when the Racers started to fight just a little harder and went on a 6-0 run that tied the set at 20. The teams then traded serves and runs to force the set into extra points. MSU took advantage of the extra time and went on a 2-0 run with a kill from Sauer and a block by junior Mary Cunningham and Hayden for the 26-24 win.
The Racers were out-hit .198 (59k-25e-172ta) to .223 (67k-18e-175ta), but had more kills (59-57), assists (52-46), service aces (9-5) and digs (85-74).
Notes: The Racers are now 3-0 against EKU in quarterfinal matches on the OVC Championship and 4-2 in all tournament matches against the Colonels....service aces became a factor in the second set, with MSU tallying four and EKU garnering three…after not playing for eight matches junior Logan Su came in to the fourth set and recorded a kill on her first attempt…the Racers are 5-1 against Morehead State in OVC tournament matches…MSU is now 14-6 in quarterfinal matches and 23-16 in all OVC Championship matches.
