TUESDAY'S SCORES
Morehead State 3, @ Tennessee State 0
Little Rock 3, @UT Martin 0
MOREHEAD STATE 3, TENNESSEE STATE 0
NASHVILLE - The MSU volleyball team used a blistering attack to sweep Tennessee State and ran its Ohio Valley Conference record to 3-0 to begin conference play Tuesday night in Nashville.
Morehead State (9-5, 3-0 OVC) slugged 53 kills and posted a .437 attack percentage in the victory. The Eagle attack was led by M.E. Hargan with 17 kills and a .484 attack percentage and Hollan Everett who notched 15 kills while posting a .542 efficiency.
The first set was tightly contested from the beginning. Down 7-9, the Eagles ran off a 4-0 run to go ahead 11-9. Tennessee State battled back to tie the set at 15-15. MSU went on a four-point run, highlighted by two kills from Hollan Everett and Sydney Sennett's second ace of the set to stretch the lead to 20-16. The Eagles closed out the set with a four-point run capped by a kill by Hargan. The Eagle attack hit .359 in the set, paced by Everett with seven kills, hitting .462.
MSU used two five-point runs to establish an 11-3 lead and ever looked back in the second frame. M.E. Hargan led the Eagle attack with seven kills in the frame. The Eagles attack pounded 18 kills with no attack errors for a dazzling .643 hitting percentage.
Morehead State ran off an early 5-0 run to take an 8-3 lead. A pair of three-point runs extended the Eagle lead to 15-7. Morehead State hit .361 to comfortably close out the match.
Tennessee State (1-14/ 0-3 OVC) was led by Melae Lacy with nine kills hitting .333. Erini Bitsaktsi finished with 10 digs.
LITTLE ROCK 3, UT MARTIN 0
MARTIN, Tenn. - Little Rock stormed out of the gate during Tuesday's Ohio Valley Conference match and never looked back, rolling to a sweep of UT Martin at the Skyhawk Fieldhouse by scores of 25-13, 25-19, and 25-14. The Trojans (7-7, 2-0) and extended their win streak over UTM to five consecutive matches. Little Rock is 12-3 all-time against the Skyhawks, who fell to 1-12, 0-2.
"It's always good to win on the road … Bella, Jaycee, and Andrea played really well tonight and made a big difference for us," head coach Van Compton said. "We started the match attacking very efficiently and it carried over through the entire match. We have some good momentum coming back home for two games this weekend."
The Trojans hit .257 in the match while holding the Skyhawks' offense to a paltry .037 attack percentage. Bella Cherry hit .500 and led all players with 13 kills, Vivian Lucumi had eight kills, hitting .353 and Jaycee Kennedy added five while attacking at a .556 clip. Crismeyli Rodriguez finished with 10 kills and A'lanae Margaritha added five.
Kaylee Smith and Dariana Valencia each had 17 assists, while Rodriguez and Margaritha chipped in a pair of aces apiece. Defensively, Andrea Roman led the way with 16 digs, Rodriguez had 12 and Cherry added 10. Kennedy and Rodriguez each had three blocks and Margaritha led the Trojans with four.
Little Rock hit a blistering .457 in the opening set (18k-2e-35A), jumped out to an 8-2 lead and led 19-9 and 22-11 before closing out the set by a dozen points. Rodriguez hit .625 in the set with five kills, while Lucumi added four while hitting .571. The Trojans never trailed in the opening set.
Cherry had six kills and hit .667 in the second set, which saw the score tied at 10-10 before the Trojans went ahead 14-11. They led by as much as 21-14 and 24-17 before ending the set. Cherry had four kills in the final frame and Little Rock led 8-2 early before opening a 21-11 advantage. They never trailed in the set.