The Ashland University volleyball team survived a marathon third set and polished off a 25-16, 25-16, 34-32 sweep of host Parkside on Friday (Feb. 26) night at DeSimone Gymnasium in Kenosha, Wis.
The Eagles (3-0 GLIAC) remained undefeated in GLIAC play and had their most efficient offensive output of the early season. Ashland hit .241 as a team and hit at least .222 in all three sets.
The first set was tied at 3 before the Eagles reeled off the next 13 points with junior
Zoie Franklin on the serve. Eight of those points came on kills with four coming from junior
Heidi Fausze and three from senior
Lexi Lombardo. Senior
Brooke Peiffer finished the set with a kill.
Set 2 was tied as late as 8-8, but Peiffer's kill started a 4-0 run and the Rangers never got closer than two points after that as Fausze and senior
Courtney Rosebrook finished the set with a block.
The third set was a wild one as the Eagles fought off two straight set points with a kill by Peiffer and an error by the Rangers.
From there, the set went back-and-forth. The Eagles had five set points and the Rangers had three before Lombardo gave the Eagles a 33-32 lead and Fausze and Rosebrook combined on a block to close the match.
Junior
Erin Krupar and Fausze finished with 10 kills each while Peiffer, Rosebrook and Lombardo had eight each in a balanced attack.
Junior
Zoey Peck had 40 assists and 16 digs while freshman libero
Katie Thompson had a match-high 20 digs.
Jazmine Neal led the Rangers with 17 kills (.500), but the Eagles held the hosts to a .172 hitting percentage.
The Eagles and Rangers will square off again on Saturday (Feb. 27) at 7:30 p.m. ET in Kenosha, Wis.
AU
VB/BB
