COLUMBIA, Ky. – The Indiana Tech volleyball closed out play at the Lindsey Wilson Volleyball Classic on Friday. The Warriors went 2-0 on the day, defeating Bethel University (Tenn.) and Asbury University (Ky.) to go 4-0 for the weekend and leading the Classic standings with one left of action.
Indiana Tech defeated Bethel, 25-22, 25-12, 27-25, for their second sweep of the Classic
in the morning match.
The Warriors got off to a good start against the Royals, jumping out to an 8-3 behind the serving of junior
Taylor Kelso and two
Jazmin Alexander kills. The Orange and Black would get a six run spurt to push the lead to 15-6.
Bethel would not give up without a fight however, clawing back to tie things up a 16 apiece. Tech would take the lead back thanks to kills from freshman
Aubree Eggers and Alexander. The Royals would tie it back up at 22, forcing head coach
Kourtney Wilson to call a time out. Two kills from senior
Katelyn St. Martin would set up set point for Eggers, who sent it home to put the Warriors up 1-0.
Tech would control the second set from the opening serve, never trailing and pushing their lead to 13. The third set would be another nail bitter, with 14 ties and four lead changes. After getting ahead 12-6, the Warriors would see their lead shrink to two following four straight errors. Undaunted, St. Martin stopped the bleeding with a kill, but the two teams traded serves for the next 12 points to set up a great finish with the score 18-15.
Three straight Royals points tied it up at 18 before St. Martin came to the rescue again. After going down 23-22 and forcing Wilson to call time out, the Warriors answered her call. Battling back from down 24-23 as well,
Cassie Sarabia tied it up at 24 with a kill before a Royals error gave the Warriors a lead that they would not relinquish. St. Martin came around with another kill to make it 26-25 before a Royals error gave Tech the sweep.
The Warriors then defeated Asbury in the afternoon session, winning 14-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-15. The Eagles cruised through the first set, only allowing the Orange and Black a 1-0 lead before getting out to a 14-6 lead and never looking back.
The second set saw the two team's battle back and forth through the first 23 serves. Tech then went on a 7-0 run behind the serving of junior
Taylor Kelso and two of
Cassie Sarabia's game-high 15 kills to go ahead 17-12. At 24-21, the Eagles rattled off two points to force Wilson to call a time out. With the set on the line, Alexander took the set from
Karli Jones and blasted it home for the win.
After going down 7-2 in the third, the Warriors then took 11 of the next 12 points to go ahead 13-9 and grab control of the set and the game, never trailing in the rest of the third or the fourth.
St. Martin added 12 kills while scoring three aces and recording 18 digs. Kelso and Jones also added double digit digs with 16 and 11, respectively.
Indiana Tech continues its road trip next Wednesday when they travel to Michigan-Dearborn and open WHAC play for both teams. First serve is set up 7 p.m.
