Kent State University
11-9 (3-4MAC)
University of Toledo
1-19 (0-7MAC)
Volleyball Sweeps Toledo for First Road Victory of Conference Season
10/17/2014 9:44:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
TOLEDO, Ohio – The Kent State volleyball team earned its first road victory in Mid-American Conference play in a convincing manner, defeating Toledo, 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-21) Friday evening at Savage Arena. The Golden Flashes improved to 11-9 overall and 3-4 in the MAC with the victory.
"I thought we took advantage of our opportunities tonight and it was a good performance overall," head coach Don Gromala said. "Winning on the road in this conference can be difficult, so it is nice to put a team away in three sets. Coming in, we knew we were the more physical team and we tried to use that to our advantage. We had strong execution along the net and that was probably the biggest difference in the match."
Kent State's offense played its most efficient match of the conference season and finished with a .264 hitting percentage. The Flashes had 42 kills for their best per-set average against a MAC school and their 13 attack errors tied their second-lowest total of the season.
Senior outside hitter Tinuke Aderemi-Ibitola led a balanced attack with 12 kills and a .346 hitting percentage in her return to the starting lineup. Junior opposite Kelly Hutchison added seven kills. Freshman outside hitter Kelsey Bittinger and senior middle blocker Liz Reikow provided six kills each. Freshman middle blocker Amber Gerdeman posted a career-high four kills and hit .333. Freshman setter Brittney Jakscht recorded 33 assists.
The Flashes made it difficult for the Rockets to score points, forcing 26 attack errors compared to just 30 kills for a .034 hitting percentage. Kent State held an 8.5-6.0 advantage in blocks and 53-46 advantage in digs. The Flashes came out with great energy on defense and tallied 26 digs in the opening set to hold the Rockets to a -.023 hitting percentage.
"They tried to catch us off guard with some off-pace swings and we did a nice job of defending those," Gromala said. "That really allowed us to establish the tone for the match."
Leading the way on defense was freshman libero Challen Geraghty, who tallied a match-high 21 digs. Junior defensive specialist Sarah Mills (9), senior defensive specialist Kaylee Koller (7) and Jakscht (6) also made key contributions in keeping the ball in play. Five players had a block with Reikow leading the way with a match-high five blocks.
Kent State will look to even its conference record and match its win total from last season when it returns to action for a 7 p.m. match at Ball State Saturday night.
