By Holly Weber, TTU Sports Information
MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—The Tennessee Tech volleyball team (4-4) fell to Seton Hall (4-4) on day one of the Blue Raider Bash in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Pirates defeated the Golden Eagles 3-0, with winning set scores of 25-21, 25-7, and 28-26.
In set one, Seton Hall took the early 9-5 lead over Tech. The Golden Eagles fought back to tie the set at 14-14 with back-to-back kills by Shealene Little. Seton Hall remained went on to retake a three-point lead at 17-14, however, Tech remained adamant and once again tied the set at 17-17, taking advantage of a Pirate attack error. From there, the Golden Eagles and Seton Hall went back-and-forth fighting for control. Heading into the latter portion of the set, the Pirates regained their lead pulling ahead 22-19 off of a Tech attack error, and then closed out a first set victory 25-21 over the Golden Eagles.
"We came out good in the first set, but had a back-and-forth battle," head coach Dave Zelenock said. "We weren't really good offensively, but we were great defensively posting 29 digs in the one set."
Seton Hall took a commanding 12-point lead (16-4) to kick off set two with Tech. The Pirates then extended their lead to 15-points at 21-6 with a kill by Dominique Mason, before winning the second set 25-7.
"We tried to make some changes in the second and third set, but they just didn't seem to work," Zelenock continued. "Seton Hall is a really good team that was missing two starters for their first couple of weeks, and those two girls really made an impact on the team that we weren't expecting. But this is our eighth match of the year, and this is the eighth time an opposing coach has told us how great our defense is. In wins our offense comes to life, and in loss we are a bit stale."
The Golden Eagles started off with the 8-6 lead in the third set with a kill from Alyssa Povey. Tech continued to hold onto the lead at 13-10 with a kill from Rachel Thomas, however, Seton Hall eventually came back to tie the set at 16-16. From there, the Golden Eagles battled back to take the 20-17 lead over the Pirates, causing Seton Hall to take a timeout. After the break the Pirates battled back to tie the set at 22-22, and after much back-and-forth Seton Hall sealed a third set and match victory 28-26.
Thomas led the Golden Eagles with 8 kills in the match, while teammate Allison Morrett posted 13 kills. As a team, Tech notched a .138 hitting percentage with 5.0 blocks compared to Seton Hall's .250 hitting percentage and 6.0 blocks. Dominique Mason led the Pirates with 13 kills.
"We are going to come out extremely focused tomorrow," Golden Eagle Rachel Thomas said. "We are going to work on getting first ball sideouts and working more as a team."
The Golden Eagles return to action on Saturday for day two of the Blue Raider Bash. Tech will take on Illinois State at 2:30 p.m. and then Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m.
"I think Illinois State is going to come out with a lot of fire tomorrow," Zelenock remarked. "They are a lot like Seton Hall in that they are a really big and physical team and will really test our defense. They can really pound the ball and have an even bigger block than Seton Hall did."
Photo by Jim Dillon
