Kent State Volleyball Drops Opening Match of Season-Ending Road Trip
11/3/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
YPSILANTI, Mich. — The Kent State volleyball team entered the weekend looking to get back on track, but fell in three sets (14-25, 18-25, 14-25) to Eastern Michigan Saturday evening at the Convocation Center in Ypsilanti, Mich.
The Golden Flashes (6-20, 3-11) were unable to slow the Eastern Michigan offense as the Eagles hit .350 for the match.
Freshmen Morgan Semmelhack (Elmhurst, Ill.) and Haley Schneider (Farmington Hills, Mich.) continued their strong play as of late for the Golden Flashes. They each had a team-high nine kills and Semmelhack added seven digs.
Junior defensive specialist/libero Hannah Herc (Eden, N.Y.) was a stalwart on defense once again with 22 digs. Sophomore setter Jenny Buczek had a double-double for the third straight match. Buczek had 15 assists and 12 digs.
The two teams traded points to begin the match tied 2-2. Eastern Michigan then used 7-3 and 10-4 spurts to gain control of the set with a 19-9 advantage. The Flashes then recorded their first back-to-back points of the night on a pair of kills by sophomore Lauren Engleman (Cincinnati, Ohio), beginning 5-3 run of their own. That would be all of their scoring in the set as the Eagles would close it out with three straight points.
Trailing 6-3 in the next set, the Flashes lost five straight points to dig an 11-3 hole. The deficit would reach nine at 15-6, but Kent State came right back with four points of their own and trimmed the Eagle lead to four on two occasions. The slow start to the set proved too much to overcome and they lost, 25-18.
Kent State kept it close for most of the third set and trailed 18-13 after a kill by Semmelhack. Eastern Michigan then took seven of the final eight points to close the match.
The Eagles had three players record double-digit kills. Rachel Iaquaniello led the way, hitting .444 with 17 kills and 15 digs. Alyssa Davis had a match-high 39 assists and Sierra Reed anchored the defense for the Eagles with 25 digs.
Kent State will conclude its season next weekend with a pair of road matches, beginning with rival Akron on Friday (Nov. 9) as part of the PNC Wagon Wheel Challenge.
