Eagles Run Win Streak To Eight After Home Victory Over Dragons

Despite losing its first set in almost three weeks, Ashland University's volleyball team still ran its winning streak to eight matches on Friday (Sept. 23) thanks to a 3-1 (22-25, 27-25, 25-10, 25-17) win over Tiffin at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium.
 
The Eagles, leaders of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference's South Division, are 11-5 overall and 7-0 in the conference. The eight-match win streak is the program's longest since a nine-matcher in 2019.
 
Tiffin is 7-9, 3-4.
 
Ashland had won 20 consecutive sets prior to losing the first set on Friday night.
 
"It's volleyball. If you just win all three…I thought our Bentley match (a 3-2 win) was probably the best one we've had for preparing for something later," said Ashland head coach Kevin Foeman. "We have to be in those positions. It helps you grow."
 
The Eagles are 19-3 against the Dragons since Tiffin moved to NCAA Division II.
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• Tied at 12 in the opening set, Ashland ran off three straight points to force a Dragons timeout. Tiffin worked the score back to 17-17, then led 18-17, then 21-19 before an AU stoppage. The Dragons led 23-20, which led to another Eagle timeout, and Tiffin went on to the set victory.
• Tiffin went out to an 8-4 lead in the second set, but Ashland kept coming back, eventually tying the set at 11-all. The Eagles took a 12-11 lead, then led 20-17, but the Dragons responded with four points in a row to regain the advantage. Back and forth the teams went, and down 25-24, Ashland scored the final three points to knot the match at 1-1.
• "They're a strong team," Foeman said. "They came out doing some things that got us a little uncomfortable. It took us a little bit to figure out that we could just play our game, not worry about what they were bringing."
• Ashland had a quicker start to set No. 3, leading 9-4 prior to a Tiffin timeout. The Eagles hit .370 en route to the easy third-set win, then hit .500 in the fourth and final set to finish off the victory.

 
THE WRAP-UP

• Fifth-year outside hitter Erin Krupar (16 kills, two service aces) and fifth-year setter Zoey Peck (43 assists) paced the AU offense, and got help from sophomore outside hitter Makenna Belcher (12 kills, three services aces) and freshman middle blocker Abby Stanford (11 kills).
• "Tiffin played really well," Peck said. "We're going to have an off set every once in a while. We just shook it off right away. Our passers were calm, they got nice passes for me to set. And our hitters did really well, especially our middles."
• Defensively, senior middle blocker Anna Krikke had a solo block and four block assists, while both junior libero Katie Thompson (19) and Peck (10) had double-digit digs.
• Friday night's match featured 32 ties and 16 lead changes.

 
UP NEXT
Ashland will stay home and go out of conference to take on Salem (0-20) on Saturday (Sept. 23) at 2 p.m.