The Ashland University volleyball team turned in a dominant performance on Friday (Sept. 22) night, sweeping host Lake Superior State, 25-14, 25-22, 25-15, in GLIAC play in Ste. Sault Marie, Mich.
The Eagles (8-4, 2-2 GLIAC) hit a blistering .365 for the match and held the Lakers (1-9, 0-4 GLIAC) to a .148 mark. Ashland committed just nine hitting errors on the night.
The match started with three straight kills by redshirt-sophomore Michaela Ping off sets by redshirt-junior Kayla Pfeiffer. The Eagles stretched their lead from 13-7 to 19-8 with a 6-1 run capped with a kill by freshman McKinley Smith. An attack error by LSSU gave the Eagles the first set win.
The Eagles trailed by a 15-13 mark in Set 2, but went on a 4-0 run to take the lead. The Lakers worked it back to a tie score at 22, but a kill by freshman Ellie Jensen, block by Pfeiffer and junior Reanne Neal and a kill by Neal set the Eagles up with a 2-0 lead.
The AU attack was superb in the third set, racking up 17 kills on just 34 swings with no errors for a .500 hitting percentage. The Eagles actually trailed, 5-4, but Neal went on an 8-0 scoring run push Ashland ahead, 12-5. Sophomore Shelby Woycik finished the match with a pair of consecutive kills.
Woycik led the Eagles with 13 kills (.440) against only two errors on 25 attacks. Ping came up with 10 kills (.474) with only one error on 19 attacks. Jensen (nine) and Neal (seven) combined for 16 kills and two errors.
Pfeiffer worked the floor as the distributor, handing out 34 assists. Senior Melanie Aguayo led the squad with 10 digs while Woycik just missed a double-double with nine digs.
Amanda Reid led the Lakers with nine kills and Justice Kjolhede had a match-high 19 digs.
The Eagles will look for a third straight win on Saturday (Sept. 23) at 4 p.m. at Saginaw Valley State.
AU
VB/BB