Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Austin Peay
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Racers Fall to Austin Peay, 1-3, in OVC Season Opener
9/17/2010 11:30:23 PM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State volleyball team opened the Ohio Valley Conference portion of its season with a hard fought loss with Austin Peay. The Lady Govs (10-1, 1-0 OVC) earned a 1-3 (25-27, 13-25, 25-23, 22-25) win over the Racers (3-8, 0-1 OVC) at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn.
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MSU was led by senior Ashley Nenninger, who tallied 16 kills, a .310 (16k-3e-42ta) hitting percentage and three blocks. Junior Logan Su also saw a double-digit kill performance, with 12.
Defensively, junior Kayleah Sauer led the team with 21 digs, while senior Becca Lamb added 20, freshman Katlyn Hudson garnered 15, and junior Jade Guo tallied a double-double, with 10 digs and 42 assists.
The Lady Govs were the first team to take a lead in the opening set, using three small runs to take a 3-7 advantage. The Racers followed with a three-point run to cut the lead to one before APSU opened the lead up again to four (7-11). MSU then kicked up the intensity with a 5-0 run that gave them the lead. The teams then traded points and runs for the rest of the set. It looked like the Racers would earn the early advantage, after a 4-0 run that put them up 22-19. However, the Lady Govs fought back and earned the win, 27-25, including a 5-0 run that gave them back the lead.
The second set was controlled by APSU, as they opened the set with a 3-0 run and never looked back. The Racers were unable to get a rhythm going, as they were only allowed to get more than one-point in a row once during the set. The Lady Govs kept pushing the momentum and earned a 13-25 win.
MSU and APSU fought back-and-forth in the third set. Both teams had several small runs and one large run to push the momentum in their favor. The Racers were the last team to take advantage of a run, rattling off five-straight points to retake the lead for good, with the scoreboard reading 16-19. MSU went up 21-19 after the run and despite a hard fought end to the set, earned the 25-23 victory.
The Racers took an early lead in the fourth set, with a 5-0 run (10-5). The teams then traded the next few serves before the Lady Govs used a 6-0 run of their own to regain the advantage (12-13). The battled then resumed with both teams trading serves are short runs until APSU made a final run with the scoreboard reading 22-21. The Lady Govs went on a 4-0 run to earn the set and match victory, 22-25.
The Racers earned an advantage in the blocking and digs column. MSU knocked down 10 blocks, while APSU garnered eight and out-blocked the Lady Govs, 92-81. However, APSU earned a clear advantage in the service ace column, at 1-8.
MSU will return to OVC action, Saturday, Sep. 18 when the team travels to Nashville, Tenn., to face Tennessee State at 2 p.m. in Kean Hall.
