By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It was a dominant night on the hardwood for the Tennessee Tech volleyball team Sunday evening, as the Golden Eagles made quick work of Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Kentucky in the Hooper Eblen Center, sweeping the Colonels 3-0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-15).
"That felt good," Tech head coach Jeannette Waldo expressed. "We were groovin' and clicking on all cylinders. That's what we see in practice all the time. Last weekend gave us some confidence and we really came out and executed tonight. That was really nice to see."
Following a doubleheader sweep of Eastern Illinois last weekend, it took the purple and gold a minute to get warmed up on Sunday, falling behind in set one 6-1. Tech answered with a 15-2 run, and never looked back. Up 16-8, the purple and gold finished off set one with a 9-4 edge, easily taking things by a score of 25-12.
Tech hits a solid .278 in the opening game, with six different Golden Eagles registering a kill. Setting the theme of the night though was the serving prowess of the home team. A whopping six points came by way of service aces for the purple and gold, led by an eye-popping four from senior Ali Verzani alone.
"We knew that we had to serve aggressively," Waldo explained. "We knew serve receiving was one of the weaker components of their game, so we worked a lot on serving this week. We worked on spot serving and knew the weak areas on the court. We haven't always executed on that in the past, but we did tonight and hopefully, we can do it again."
Three more aces in the second set only helped boost an incredible attack from Tech's big swingers, which combined for 15 kills and a 42.9 attack percentage. Redshirt sophomore Madeline Furtado paced her squad in game two, producing six kills on just nine attempts. Verzani tallied four while sophomore Skylar Brown turned in three, leading to the 25-16 win.
Tech continued to cruise in set three, easily claiming a 25-15 victory behind a .241 hitting percentage, five more service aces and nine kills. For the game, the home team hit .320 with 33 kills, nine blocks and 14 service aces. The Golden Eagles held EKU to a -.013 attack percentage and a goose egg in the blocks column.
Furtado paced the offense on the night, tallying a season-high 10 kills with seven digs. She hit a whopping .476 while producing the second-highest total of kills in her career.
"She's been working really hard this week and wanted to have a big weekend," Waldo said. "She really walked the walk tonight."
Verzani tallied eight kills and seven digs, but it was her serving prowess that shined brightly on the night. Tallying a career-high seven aces, she tied for the second-most by a Golden Eagle in a three-set match in program history with Cody Dodd (2014) and Kim Tunnell (1985). Skylar Boom turned in six kills in the match while Taylor Dorsey finished the night with five kills and three total blocks on a .571 hitting percentage.
The Golden Eagles and Colonels are set to square off once more on Monday evening. First serve is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CT in the Eblen Center.
Photo by Jim Dillon
