Box Score A win and being able to honor three players on Senior Night was the perfect combination for Ashland University's volleyball team on Friday (Oct. 30) night.
The Eagles improved to 17-6 overall and 10-2 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 3-1 (17-25, 25-17, 25-11, 25-16) victory over Walsh (8-16, 1-11) at Kates Gymnasium. AU's fourth consecutive victory keeps the team in a first-place tie with Findlay atop the GLIAC South Division.
Prior to the match, seniors Audrey Metzger and Samantha Zuber and graduating junior Rylee Scott were honored for their contributions to the program. The Cavaliers attempted to spoil the party, however, winning the first set.
"It was a slow start. It was definitely a slow start," said Ashland head coach Cass Dixon, whose team nearly has as many attacking errors in the first set (12) as in the remainder of the match (13). "We just weren't very sharp."
In the match's final three sets, however, the Eagles rallied, posting a cumulative hitting percentage of .277 and keeping Walsh to a percentage of minus-.060.
"We talked about fundamentals," Dixon said. "It's doing the little things over and over and over again, consistently. We didn't get mad. We just said, 'Look, here it is. This is what you need to do in order to turn things around.' And they responded."
Junior outside hitter Alli Cudworth finished the night with a team-high 16 kills to go with 10 digs. Junior outside hitter Casey Clark, the reigning GLIAC South Player of the Week, paced the defense with 20 digs and added eight kills.
Junior setter Mallory Slyder had 28 assists, while freshman libero Kaitlin Bean (14) and sophomore defensive specialist Melanie Aguayo (11) each added double-digit digs.
Zuber had seven kills and three digs, Metzger collected six kills, two digs and three block assists and Scott had nine kills, two digs and a team-high six block assists.
"Rylee, Sam and Audrey, they've been with the program three, four years now. They really have helped to build the program to what it has become," Dixon said. "Great people, great players. It's been an honor to have them in our program."
Ashland will play its final regular-season home match of 2015 on Saturday (Oct. 31) at 2 p.m. against Malone. It will be Parents' Day at Kates Gymnasium.
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