According to Ashland University head volleyball coach Cass Dixon, her Eagles now are playing "Ashland volleyball."
It's hard to argue after seeing the results of the last week, capped off by a 3-1 win (25-23, 11-25, 25-21, 25-22) at Kates Gymnasium Saturday (Nov. 1) afternoon against Ohio Dominican.
Thanks to a 3-0 week, with all three wins coming at home, the Eagles now are 9-14 overall and 9-7 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Ashland also is 4-1 in its last five matches as it attempts to qualify for the GLIAC Tournament.
"We've been talking about this, that it's still possible," Dixon said. "We've played to our expectation levels of where we started out at the beginning of the season."
There were two key turning points in Saturday's match. The first was a decision by the referees late in the first game to replay a point in which ODU went ahead 22-21. Ashland ended up winning the game by two points.
Then, in the fourth and final game, the Eagles were behind as late as 19-15 before they rallied for the win in the game and the match.
"That's the first time all year that our girls have been in that situation where they've been down…and we just kept plugging away," said Dixon. "They really were disciplined."
Sophomore Alli Cudworth now has five consecutive double-doubles, and double-digit kills in nine of the last 10 matches, after her 20-kill, 11-dig effort on Saturday.
"She was on fire," Dixon said.
Sophomore Casey Clark also had a double-double (10 kills, team-high 18 digs), and sophomore Rylee Scott added a dozen kills, freshman Kilee Kimmel had 12 digs and sophomore Katie Siefert dished off 46 assists.
Ashland will close out the 2014-15 regular season with a pair of home matches next week – Friday (Nov. 7) against Hillsdale, one of the teams with whom AU is fighting for GLIAC Tournament position – and Saturday (Nov. 8) at Findlay.
"I think it's a great momentum-booster. It's a great confidence-booster heading into two really tough matches," Dixon said.
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