HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lincoln Memorial women's volleyball team made quick work of the short-handed Newberry Wolves on Friday night at Mary Mars Gymnasium, rolling to its fifth consecutive South Atlantic Conference win by scores of 25-15, 25-21 and 25-8.
Traffic delayed Newberry's arrival and the start of Friday night's match by 20 minutes, but that was the only thing that slowed down the Lady Railsplitters (14-6, 10-4 SAC), who needed only 26 kills total to take down the Wolves (8-14, 3-12 SAC) in straight sets. LMU has now won six of its last seven matches and strung together three straight 3-0 wins.
"Any time that you can get a win in conference, it's awesome," said LMU head coach
Jenny Michael. "Any time that you can be lucky enough to get a 3-0 win, especially when you have to turn around and play the next day, it just gives the athletes a little bit more time to rest and recover to prepare for tomorrow physically, mentally and emotionally."
With top hitters Toni-Anne Whitlow and Vanessa Blas sidelined, the Newberry attack was virtually nonexistent. The Wolves finished the match with only 25 kills and 27 errors – an average of nine per set – to hit -.020. Six different Newberry players had multiple attack errors.
"I hate it. Injuries are unfortunately a part of sport," Michael said. "Newberry was really down tonight. To be perfectly honest I don't know that it was our defense that stood out, they just kind of struggled to get into an offensive rhythm. I have to give them a lot of credit, though. They fought, they battled and we are grateful to be able to come away with a win."
Rylee Storms and
Kai Wesemann led the Lady Railsplitters with seven kills apiece, while
Tone Gill had five and
Danielle Ged had four.
Emily Walter led the way with 24 assists, while
Erica Whiteaker paced the Lady Railsplitters with 11 digs.
Newberry was led by Angela Gore's match-high nine kills and 15 digs. Mary Siebert chipped in eight kills, while Lacie Wood had five. Olivia Kozemko produced a double-double with 12 assists and 12 digs. Kensley Jordan also had double-digit digs with 10.
The Wolves had a miserable offensive attack in the opening set, committing 10 attack errors on only 32 swings to allow the Lady Railsplitters to cruise to a 25-15 win despite only producing eight kills. The set was knotted at 12-12 after a 6-2 Newberry run, but the Lady Railsplitters broke it open with a 6-1 run of their own over the next passage of play. Four Newberry attack errors aided that effort. The Wolves never cut the deficit to less than four after that, while LMU closed out the set on a 5-0 run capped by kills from Wesemann and Gill.
The second set went back and forth early, but the Lady Railsplitters pulled ahead for good with a 5-0 run fueled by three Newberry miscues. Back-to-back kills from Siebert bookended a 5-0 Wolves run that cut the Lady Railsplitters' lead to 20-19, but a block and kill from Ged gave LMU the separation it needed. Gill later closed out the 25-21 win with a kill.
The third and final set was never in doubt as Lincoln Memorial scored the first eight points and raced out to an eye-popping 15-1 lead. LMU racked up four aces and five kills over that span. Newberry managed to string together consecutive points only two times in the entire 25-8 loss, while the Lady Railsplitters ended the set and the match with a 4-0 flurry.
Now the Lady Railsplitters direct their attention to Saturday afternoon's match against Anderson, who comes to Harrogate in second place in the SAC standings with a 23-3 overall record. Lincoln Memorial is in third place and just two games back of the Trojans in the conference, but suffered a 3-0 loss at Anderson back on September 22.
"The first time we played them we didn't really show up," Michael said. "I think it will be a really interesting match if we actually compete and are able to play and execute on some things. If we don't show up, we could be out of the gym quick again."
First serve between Lincoln Memorial and Anderson is set for 2 p.m. inside of Mary Mars Gym.
