By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information
BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Tennessee Tech volleyball began its 2017 season on a high note, sweeping North Carolina Central in three sets (25-17, 25-13, 25-16) at its Hampton Inn Holly Springs Invitational opener Friday afternoon.
North Carolina Central, having lost earlier in the day to The Citadel, fell to an 0-2 record. Today's match marked the Golden Eagles' and Eagles' first-ever meeting.
"It was good to get a first win under the belt," said head coach Dave Zelenock.
After overcoming some opening-match struggles early in the first set, Tech (1-0) went on to dominate NCCU offensively. The Golden Eagles posted a hitting percentage of .364, its highest since it hit .374 against Prairie View A&M on Sept. 13, 2014.
"As a team, that's one of our higher hitting percentages for a team in a match, and the result of that was our blocks and our digs were down because we were ending the play so fast," said Zelenock. "It's nice to see that side come alive. We're kind of known as a defensive team, so to have our offense fire like that, it's good to know that we have that."
A big storyline resulting from today's match turned out to be Taylor Houck, who made her official debut as a Golden Eagle after redshirting the 2016 season due to injury. She led Tech with 10 of its 41 team kills, totaled a .412 hitting percentage and had two service aces.
"Taylor's just an athlete," said Zelenock. "She's aggressive as heck. That's why we recruited her. We like kids who are so aggressive that you don't pull them back. It's much easier to do that than to ask more of a player than they're capable of. With Taylor, we just point her in a direction and say go, and she's just kind of an animal.
"She got put in some really good situations by Susie (Jeziorowski) that she had a single blocker, and Taylor on a single block is pretty impressive. As far as her first time in the jersey, it was great."
Outside hitter Shealene Little fell just shy of a double-double, collecting nine kills and eight digs and also assisting on a block. Setter Susie Jeziorowski picked up a career-high 31 assists and two service aces and helped out defensively with two assists on blocks. Allison Morrett totaled 11 digs at libero.
UP NEXT
Tech concludes its appearance in the tournament with a double-header Saturday, taking on The Citadel at 12:30 p.m. CT and host Campbell at 4:30 p.m. CT.
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