GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Salisbury University volleyball team completed its first perfect weekend of the season, following up Friday's five-set win by besting the Lebanon Valley Dutch 3-1 (25-15, 25-14, 22-25, 25-8) and sweeping the Messiah Falcons 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-23) on Saturday afternoon at Messiah's Hitchcock Arena.
MATCH ONE
Up 10-9 through early set one,
Kiley McTaggart blasted a kill to jumpstart an 8-1 Sea Gull run, including a five-point string to push the lead to 18-10. SU later closed with six of the final eight points, riding a
Sophia Tapia strike to a 25-15 set victory.
The second set proved more of the same, with Salisbury flipping a 5-3 hole into a 10-5 lead with seven in a row, capped by three straight
Gwen Eustace kills. LVC never got closer than four the rest of the way, and Eustace put a capper on a 5-2 closing push to double the SU lead, 25-14.
The Dutch built a 22-17 lead late in set three before conceding five in a row to SU to tie at 22-22. LVC regrouped from there, though, notching the next three to capture the frame at 25-22.
Salisbury responded in kind with a dominant fourth set, taking 12 of the first 15 points and later stringing together eight straight to make it 20-6. McTaggart and Tapia eventually teamed up for a block to secure the final point and the match, 25-8.
Game Notes
- Kiley McTaggart hammered down 14 kills (.400) while also contributing five digs and two service aces.
- Gwen Eustace hit .600 for the match on the way to sharing the team lead with 14 kills.
- Maura Fay finished one off the team lead with 13 kills, plus four digs.
- Jasmine Nelson posted her second straight double-double with 39 assists and 12 digs. She also dealt two aces.
- Annabelle Weis led the defense with 11 digs. Elizabeth Villegas and Prudence Marco notched nine and eight digs, respectively.
- Salisbury hit .319 as a team, including .667 in a fourth set that saw it hold the Dutch to a paltry -.267 clip.
- SU dealt 12 aces, led by Marco's three and two each from McTaggart, Tapia, Weis, and Nelson.
MATCH TWO
The Sea Gulls held an 18-15 lead late in the first set, at which point
Gwen Eustace powered down a kill to start a four-point string. The Falcons ran out of time to rally from there, as a
Sophia Tapia block and MU attack error salted it away for the visitors, 25-18.
Up 9-8 in set two, Eustace and
Kiley McTaggart landed back-to-back kills, then after spotting Messiah one point Salisbury scored the next four to make it 15-9. SU closed out the frame on an extended 16-6 run, taking the fixture 25-14 after an
Annabelle Weis ace and Falcon attack error.
Salisbury opened set three on a 5-2 run, but Messiah settled down from there and matched SU blow for blow, eventually taking a 22-21 lead. Two straight Falcon attack errors flipped the lead back to the Sea Gulls at 23-22, but Makenzie Adams' kill evened things up again at 23-23. Following an MU service error, Eustace and
Jasmine Nelson rose up to stuff an Adams attack and put it in the books for the Gulls, 25-23.
Game Notes
- Gwen Eustace led a balanced Sea Gull attack with 11 kills (.500) eclipsing 900 for her career and finishing the day with 909, just 91 away from 1,000 for her career.
- Eustace also went up for six blocks (two solo) to raise her career total to 357 stuffs, six shy of Carley Todd '13 (363) for third in program history.
- Alyssa DeWaal brought the hammer down with eight kills, while Kiley McTaggart added six.
- Sophia Tapia contributed three kills, three blocks (two solo), and two service aces.
- Jasmine Nelson served up 26 assists to go along with seven digs.
- Prudence Marco ran down a team-leading 13 digs.
- Salisbury hit .220 as a team, posting marks north of .300 in the first and second sets.
- SU outblocked the Falcons 9-5.
The Sea Gulls will carry a 13-4 record into the month of October, returning to action next Saturday in at tri-match at Catholic. SU will battle Wilkes at 2 p.m. and CUA at 4 p.m.
Salisbury University is a proud member of NCAA Division III with primary membership in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference, along with affiliate membership in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (football, men's & women's swimming), Coastal Lacrosse Conference (men's lacrosse), State University of New York Athletic Conference (field hockey), and Colonial Women's Golf Conference (women's golf). With over 500 student-athletes in 23 varsity sports, SU is recognized as one of the nation's most competitive intercollegiate athletics programs regardless of division, featuring dedicated coaches and staff that foster excellence on and off the field. The Sea Gulls have won a combined 23 team national championships, 24 individual national championships, and 205 conference championships, and have produced 53 Academic All-Americans.
To Make Tomorrow Yours at Salisbury University, and learn more about Sea Gull Athletics' tradition of excellence, visit SUSeaGulls.com or follow on social media @SUSeaGulls.
