Returning to the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium for the first time in 15 days, Ashland University's volleyball team topped Malone, 3-0 (25-11, 25-9, 25-21), on Friday night.
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The Eagles' sixth consecutive win in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play puts them at 14-7 overall and 7-1 in the league – and keeps them alone in first place in the East Division. The Pioneers are 5-17, 2-7.
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Ashland was surgical in the first two sets, hitting .500 before ending the match at .398 – the Eagles' second-best single-match hitting percentage of the season.
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"We've been working on a number of different things, and I feel like they all were clicking, they were all working," said Ashland head coach
Katie Kuhn. "Our serve, serve receive, we've talked a lot about the receive and pass game, and then we've been talking about running our middles a little bit more, and that definitely helped our offense, to get our middles established as early as we did."
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HARTMAN HITTING STRONG…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- Senior right-side hitter GraceAnn Hartman hit .500 and recorded a match-high 12 kills on Friday night.
- "Very proud of GraceAnn, and she's continued to work and continued to get better," Kuhn said. "She was on fire in that match. Very proud of her."
- Said sophomore setter Kylee Urban, "I know I can give the ball to her, and she's going to put it down."
- Freshman outside hitter Sara Krizsa had 10 kills, while Urban ended with 32 assists, six digs and three kills.
- "It felt good. We played as a team tonight," Urban said. "Everyone was getting up, knowing where we're supposed to be on our block and getting good touches for our defense."
- Sophomore libero Abbey Queen paced the AU defense with 18 digs.
- Friday night was the Eagles' eighth 3-0 win of the season.
- Ashland has won nine consecutive matches in the series with Malone.
UP NEXT
Another conference home match on Saturday (Oct. 26) at 5 p.m. vs. Walsh (13-8, 6-2) – in a match-up of the top two teams in the East Division.
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