Box Score ASHLAND, Ohio – The AU volleyball team won the first two sets and out-hit Bellarmine, but the Knights battled for wins in the final three sets to stun the Eagles in their final match of the Mizuno GLVC/GLIAC Crossover in Aurora, Ill. on Saturday (Oct. 15) afternoon.
The Eagles (9-9) have dropped six straight matches, this one by scores of 24-26, 19-25, 25-17, 25-22, 18-16.
Junior Brittany Snider (Olmsted Falls, Ohio) led the Eagles offensively with an AU season-high 22 kills and a .258 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Baley Bernthisel (Grand Rapids, Ohio/Otsego) contributed a career-high 13 kills and hit .429. She also matched an AU season-high with six total blocks, including two solo.
Senior Arian Martin (Independence, Ohio) had a season high with 24 digs and sophomore Megan Rohlfs (Loveland, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) registered a career-high 12 digs on the AU back row. Freshman Maureen Johnson (Crystal Lake, Ill./South) also set a career high with six kills.
The Eagles led for much of the first set and rallied for the final three points to win the set with a service error by the Knights and then a kill by Snider and an ace by Rohlfs.
The Eagles led wire-to-wire in the second set, hitting .326 and holding Bellarmine to a .147 hitting percentage.
BU was in control of the third set with a 6-1 run at the start and the Knights never trailed after that. AU was down 6-1 in the fourth set, also, but rallied to tie it at 10-10. A Snider kill tied it at 15-15, but the Knights went on a 4-0 run and did not relinquish that lead.
The fifth set was a see-saw battle that saw five lead changes and nine tie scores. The Eagles fought off several match points, trailing 14-11. AU got three straight kills by freshman Kathy Fletcher (West Chicago, Ill./Community), Snider and Bernthisel to tie the score.
From there, the teams traded points with the Eagles fighting off two more match points, but the Knights finally scored two straight on kills by Paula Byrns and Krista Gibson.
Byrns led the Knights with 20 kills and Jaclyn Ohlmann piled up 38 digs.
The Eagles will hit the road next weekend with a match at 4 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 21) at Lake Superior State.
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