By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In fitting fashion, the Tennessee Tech volleyball team made its biggest piece of history yet in front of its own home crown on Friday. Playing host to the Golden Eagle Invitational presented by Holiday Inn of Cookeville, the purple and gold delivered back-to-back, 3-0 sweeps over Nicholls (4-4) and West Georgia (5-4) to open the 2024 campaign 8-0.
The first team in program history to begin a season with eight straight wins captured two in convincing fashion behind an offense that was consistently feisty with its opponents. Tech (8-0) opened its annual home tournament with a 3-0 performance against Nicholls, battling back-and-forth with a pesky Colonel squad in the opening set.
Unable to ever truly build space on the scoreboard – the set never saw a lead larger than three points – the Cookeville crew simply outlasted its opponent in a 25-23 decision. Tech rolled off 16 kills in the set, with six different Golden Eagles contributing.
Sets two and three went vastly different, as the purple and gold snapped a 6-6 tie with a 7-0 run and never looked back. Piling up another 14 kills with just two errors, the Golden Eagles hit .387 on their way to a decisive, 25-14 win.
The third set was nearly identical, with Tech topping the Colonels 25-16 with another 15 terminations and .367 attack. Junior setter Jordan Karlen guided the strong attack, delivering 40 assists with four digs and a pair of kills.
Senior outside hitter Madolyn Isringhausen landed three service aces and flirted with a double-double, sporting 10 kills and nine digs. Fellow senior outside Bella Powell led the Golden Eagles with 11 kills on the power of a .300 attack.
Veteran middle blocker Emma Pabon chipped in seven kills on a .500 hitting percentage and a pair of blocks. Fellow middle Elena Wallace chipped in six terminations with a .429 attack. Rookie outside Alayna Pierce narrowly missed her first career double-double, settling for nine kills and nine digs.
Moving into the evening match with West Georgia, the Golden Eagles overcame a little bit of a sluggish start to set one to settle into their seventh sweep of the season. The purple and gold crushed 18 kills in the first set against the Wolves, bouncing back from an early 14-10 deficit.
Tech pulled away late for a 25-21 win, overcoming seven attack miscues and five service errors in the opening set. The Wolves managed just six kills in the frame, but nearly doubled that effort in the second.
West Georgia totaled 11 in the second set, but it was no match for Tech's 18 smashes and number of small runs. The Golden Eagles prevailed 25-21 again before setting off for a wild set three.
Exploding out the gate, the purple and gold moved in front 7-1 quite quickly. The Wolves battled back, closing the gap to 10-9 after a challenge by the Golden Eagles was unsuccessful and set the Tech faithful into a myriad of boos.
It represented the turning point in the set, as the Cookeville crew rolled off a 12-2 run and finished off the match with a monster, 25-14 decision. On top of another 15 kills, eight of which came off the right hand of Isringhausen, Tech turned in four blocks in the deciding set as well.
Unsurprisingly, Isringhausen led the match with 17 kills, smashing .419 while tallying 11 digs for a double-double. She also dropped in another three service aces, moving past both Leah Meffert (2007-11) and Cody Dodd (2012-15) into sixth on Tech's career charts. The Edwardsville, Ill. native climbed past Vanessa Johnson (1980-83), Kim Tunnell (1982-85), and Dodd to move into seventh on the program's career list for kills, sporting 1,285.
Pierce again just missed her first double-double, chalking up 14 terminations with nine digs. Powell joined the double-digit kill crew with 10 of her own. She also tied Pabon for the team lead with four rejections on the night.
Karlen doled out 41 more helpers along with 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Senior libero McKenna Young, who had a team-high 13 digs in the opening game of the day, led the match with 19 digs and chipped in five assists and two aces for good measure. Senior Aleeya Jones added 11 digs to the Tech mix while Pabon crushed eight kills.
The 2024 Golden Eagle Invitational presented by Holiday Inn of Cookeville will officially conclude Saturday afternoon, with Tech slated to take on Radford at 2:00 p.m. CT in the Hooper Eblen Center.
Photo by Jim Dillon