KWU Volleyball Sweeps Saint Mary
~Courtesy KWU Sports Information~
The Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes are on a roll, picking up their fifth straight win with a 25-11, 25-18, 25-15 sweep over the Saint Mary Spires on Saturday night at the Ryan Sports Center in Leavenworth. Senior hitter Melissa Blair(SR/Phillipsburg, Kan.) continued her phenomenal week with a 13-kill performance to lead the Coyotes to victory again.
Wesleyan improved to 9-1 in the KCAC and is back in a tie for first place in the lead with Friends after Ottawa swept the Falcons on Saturday afternoon.
Blair had another ‘performance for the ages’ on Saturday with a team-high 13 kills and an incredible .545 hitting efficiency percentage to follow on her career best 20-kill performance on Friday night against Ottawa.
In the opening set, the Coyotes rocketed out to a 7-2 lead on back-to-back kills by Blair and continued to pull away in the set for the 25-11 victory. Wesleyan blew open the set halfway through turning a 10-4 lead into a 21-5 advantage after an error by the Spires.
Saint Mary took a 2-0 lead to start the second set, but Wesleyan tied things up at 4-all on a USM hitting error. Saint Mary would hold the lead until another Spire hitting error would tie things up at 9-all and then a kill by Sabrina Hallahan (JR/Brush, Colo.) put the Coyotes up 10-9. Saint Mary led 11-10 before a service error by the Spires tied things up again and a kill from Blair sparked the Coyote offense on a 10-1 run, putting the Coyotes up 20-12. Wesleyan won the second set 25-18.
Wesleyan raced out to a 6-0 lead in the third set and never looked back. Saint Mary never got closer than four points in the set as the Coyotes would lead 12-4 at one point. Saint Mary got within four at 17-13, but KWU scored eight of the final ten points to take the 25-15 win.
Blair’s 13 kills led the way as Wesleyan hit a season best .412 in the match. Haley Thompson(JR/Phillipsburg, Kan.) added ten kills for the Coyotes and Taylor Klover (SR/Hiawatha, Kan.) had eight.Taylor Elkinton (SR/Wichita, Kan.) had 19 assists and Sidney Schmeidler (JR/Hays, Kan.) had 15. Maddie Lindstrom (SR/Hiawatha, Kan.) had 19 digs to lead the Coyotes.
Wesleyan is on the road for the fifth straight match on Wednesday at Sterling before returning home for only the second time in October on Saturday hosting Southwestern College at 4:00 at Mabee Arena as part of Homecoming 2014.
