Kent State University
10-9, 3-3MAC
Central Michigan University
8-10, 2-4MAC
Flashes Back in Win Column with 3-0 Sweep of Chippewas
10/8/2016 9:19:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
KENT, Ohio – A dominant performance by the Kent State volleyball team Saturday night resulted in a 3-0 (27-25, 25-18, 25-18) victory over Central Michigan in the annual 'Dig for the Cure' match and halted the team's three-match skid.
The Golden Flashes (10-9, 3-3 MAC) have won four straight matches at the M.A.C. Center and have dropped just one set at home against conference foes over three matches.
Kent State was in control throughout the night and the match featured just seven ties and two lead changes. The Flashes trailed at the beginning of both the second and third set, but responded with a 9-2 run both times to take control.
The Flashes recorded a .223 hitting percentage for the match and held the Chippewas to .125 hitting. Limiting errors played a large role in being able to win sets decisively. Central Michigan led Kent State in kills (40-34) but had nearly twice as many attack errors (24-13).
Junior Brittney Jakscht was sharp in her first start in more than a month. Jakscht totaled a season-best 33 assists and helped the Flashes commit their second-fewest attack errors this season.
Kent State was efficient in the serving game with six aces and a season-low three service errors. Sophomore Sam Jones had 2 aces to lead the Flashes.
Junior Kelsey Bittinger narrowly missed her fifth double-double of the conference season and led all players with 15 kills to go with 9 digs.
The Flashes were just one block off their season-high with 10 and had four players with three or more stuffs. Senior Drew Norberg and Jakscht led the way with four total blocks. Freshman Myla King and junior Heather Younkin each had three blocks.
The floor defense was led by junior Challen Geraghty, who tallied 16 digs. Freshman Claire Tulisiak added 13 digs, including 10 in the final set, and Jones had 8 digs.
Kent State opened the match with a 5-1 lead, which quickly disappeared as Central Michigan went on its own 5-1 run to tie the opening set, 6-6. Back-to-back solo blocks by Norberg then started another 5-1 run for the Flashes to go ahead 11-7. The lead reached six points on multiple occasions and Kent State appeared to be in control with a 20-14 advantage. However, four straight kills got CMU within two points. The Flashes led 24-22 but back-to-back kills by CMU's Jordan Bueter evened the score. Sophomore Lexi Mantas came through with a kill off the CMU block but the Flashes were unable to capitalize on set point once again. Tied 25-25, Bueter sent a serve into the net and a teammate sailed an attack past the end line to give Kent State a 27-25 victory.
Central Michigan led 2-0 in the second on a pair of kills by Bueter before assisting the Flashes in building a 9-4 lead. The Chippewas gave away seven points as part of the 9-2 run on two service errors, two reception errors, an attack error, a blocking error and a bad set. Kent State pulled away with the help of a service run by Bittinger that aided in scoring seven consecutive points for an 18-8 lead. The Flashes stretched it out to 21-10, but the feisty Chippewas scored 8 of the following 11 points before Bittinger was able to put them away with her sixth kill of the set, 25-18.
After losing the first three points out of the intermission, Kent State went on another 9-2 run to take the lead for good. CMU scored the next three points to get within 9-8 and the teams traded the next six points before the Flashes closed it out with a 13-7 run.
Kent State goes back on the road next weekend to conclude the first half of the conference season. The Flashes will play Ball State on Friday and Toledo on Saturday.
