MARION, Ind. – The Indiana Tech women's volleyball team continued their young season on Friday afternoon at the Indiana Wesleyan Invitational, defeating IU East in three sets (25-19, 25-7, 25-18) and falling to Taylor in three sets (25-22, 25-20, 25-15) inside Luckey Arena.
The Red Wolves would hold the lead for the early part of the first set of the day, but the Warriors would use a 6-1 run to take their first lead of the game and go up 17-14. IU East would take the next two points to make it a one-point set, but Tech would rattle off four consecutive points to retake control and finish out the set on an 8-3 run to go up 1-0.
The Orange and Black would then turn up the heat in the second set with 14 kills and committing just one error while hitting .500 in a blowout win. Trailing 3-2 early Tech would use a 15-1 spurt to race out to the huge lead and continue that momentum into the third. Following a 3-0 run by IU East,
Kourtney Wilson's team would rattle off nine straight points to go up 15-5. The Red Wolves would make it interesting as they cut the deficit to 20-18, but the Warriors would take the last five points to complete the sweep.
Olivia Niekamp finished with a game-high 10 kills while hitting .471 for the match.
Madeline MacDonald recorded 20 digs while
Autumn Stokes dished out 16 assists.
Mara Zell served up three aces to round out Tech's leaders.
The first set against the Trojans would be a back-and-forth affair with 12 ties and eight lead changes. With the set all tied up at 21, Taylor would use a pair of kills and a Tech error to take a three-point lead and go up 1-0. The second would feature the same storyline, with neither team taking more than four-point lead until late in the set. Kills from
Aubree Eggers and Niekamp would cut the Trojan lead to 21-19, but Taylor would take the next three points to reclaim the momentum and go up 2-0 with the 25-20 set win.
The Warriors would race out to a quick 3-1 start in the third in their attempt to keep the match alive, but the Trojans would go on a 14-3 spurt to take a 15-6 lead and close the match on a 7-2 run to complete the sweep.
Zell would finish the match with nine kills and three digs while Eggers added eight kills and a .264 hitting percentage. Stokes tacked on 19 more assists while MacDonald had nine digs.
Tech (3-3) concludes play at the IWU Invitational Saturday with matches against the host Wildcats and IU Southeast. Match times are set for 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.
