WINCHESTER, Va. - Shenandoah University concluded its home
volleyball schedule Saturday afternoon by splitting USA South
Conference matches with Methodist and Averett universities.
Shenandoah (14-15, 3-14 USA South) opened with a 3-2 win over
Methodist before falling by the same score to Averett in the finale
of the day's three matches.
Against MU, the Hornets started with a 25-22
victory in the opening set only to see Methodist (16-9, 8-7) put
itself on the brink of victory by winning 25-23 and 25-22 in the
second and third sets.
SU then rallied with a 25-21 victory in the fourth and clinched
by winning 15-12 in the fifth.
The two teams traded the lead eight times and were tied on 25
times in the first three sets including 11 ties and three lead
changes in the opener.
The Hornets began their comeback by jumping out to an 18-10 lead
in the fourth before MU made things interesting with a 5-0 run as
Shenandoah sat poised at set point.
Jordan Grady had to those of those points via service
ace before she drove her fifth serve on the rotation into the
net to end the set.
SU led the entire way in the fifth, scoring four of the first
five points and never letting its lead dip below two points the
rest of the way.
Sophomore Rachel Maki, who had
a team-high 16 kills for the Hornets, finished the match off by
putting down a Kelcy Brown set.
In addition to Maki's 16 kills, senior Jessi
Johnson added 13 and freshman Megan
Gillispie 10.
Brown had 48 assists and 11 digs with Amber
DeHaven posting 15 digs. She, along with Brown, were two
of four women in double figures in digs.
Stephanie Wood had 17 kills for the Monarchs.
Against the Cougars (20-12, 12-3), the Hornets won the first set
25-19 and after AU was a 25-20 victor in the second, brought
themselves one set from a sweep by winning a 28-26 marathon in the
third.
Unfortunately, Averett had other ideas with 25-15 and 16-14 wins
in the fourth and fifth sets, respectively.
Shenandoah actually the serve and a 14-12 lead in the fifth only
to see the Cougars gain back the serve on a Jordan Maupin error and
then tie it when SU had an attack error.
A Hillary Metheny kill then clinched it for Averett.
Maki led all players with 19 kills with Mary Harshman
contributing 19 digs.
Methodist swept Averett in the middle match.
SU completes its regular season next weekend with a tri-match at
Greensboro against Meredith and the host Pride.
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