By Holly Weber, TTU Sports Information
MOREHEAD, Ky.—The Tennessee Tech volleyball team (7-17, 3-8 OVC) fell to Morehead State (10-15, 6-5 OVC) in Friday night's action at the Wetherby Gym. The Eagles defeated the Golden Eagles in four sets (3-1) with set scores of 23-25, 25-16, 25-10, and 25-17.
Ties of 7-7 and 11-11 opened up set one in a tangle for Tech and Morehead State. The Golden Eagles created a slight two-point lead with a kill by freshman Rachel Thomas at 15-13. Tech continued to hold their lead into the latter part of the set, leading by three at 18-15 with a block by Alyssa Povey and Susan Jeziorowski, which pushed Morehead State to call for a timeout. Out of the break, the Purple and Gold squad continued to dominate holding their lead at 21-17 with a kill by Povey. Here, the Eagles called for another timeout and began to stage a comeback. Morehead State pulled within one point of the Golden Eagles at 24-23, forcing Tech to call for a timeout this time. Once play resumed, the Golden Eagles silenced the Eagles attempts with a kill from K'Vonna Johnson to claim a first set victory at 25-23.
Morehead State went on a 6-0 run to kick off set two. The Eagles maintained their lead into the middle of the set, leading the Golden Eagles by eight at 16-8. Here, Tech called for a timeout and came out of the break strong to pull within five points of Morehead State at 16-11 with a kill by Jeziorowski, however, the Golden Eagles efforts were not enough as the Eagles took a second set victory at 25-16 to tie the match score at 1-1.
Morehead State once again started off with the advantage in set three, leading by six at 7-1. From there, the Eagles further extended their lead by 11 at 15-4 taking advantage of a Tech service error. Morehead State continued to keep the pressure on late in the set pulling ahead at 19-9 before sealing a third set victory at 25-10 to pull ahead in the match two sets to one.
A 10-5 lead kicked off set four in favor of the Eagles. A kill by Shealene Little brought Tech within two points of Morehead State at 11-9, however, the Eagles went on a 6-0 run to extend their lead to 17-9. From there, Morehead State closed out a fourth set and match victory 25-17 over Tech.
Thomas led the Golden Eagles with 13 kills and a .360 hitting percentage in the match. Sharon Anderson tallied 28 assists in the contest, while teammate Kennedy Wade grabbed 13 digs. Meredith Jewell led Morehead State with 19 kills, a .385 hitting percentage, and 10 digs. Two other Eagles totaled double-digit kills: Schuler (11) and Reynolds (10), while Nichol put up 38 assists.
As a team, Tech tallied just 36 kills and a .062 hitting percentage to Morehead State's 52 kills and .258 hitting percentage. The Eagles also totaled 49 digs, 48 assists, and 17.0 blocks to the Golden Eagles 47 digs, 34 assists, and 11.0 blocks.
The Golden Eagles return to action on Saturday when Tech travels to Eastern Kentucky to take on the Colonels in a 1 p.m. contest at the Alumni Coliseum.
Photo by Jim Dillon
