MONTREAT, N.C. – The Indiana Tech women's volleyball team finished their opening weekend with an unblemished record as they won their final two games of the Volley in the Mountains Saturday, defeating a pair of NCAA Division II opponents in Newberry College and West Virginia State University, 3-1 (25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 25-23) and 3-2 (25-13, 23-25, 24-26, 25-16, 15-9), respectively, at McAlister Gymnasium.
The Warriors got out to a 9-2 lead in the first set against Newberry thanks to a 5-0 run, but the Wolves battled back to cut the deficit to 13-12. Tech pulled away with a 6-2 run to take the first set 25-19. The Orange and Black turned up the offense in the second as they hit .321 as a team to follow-up their .310 attack percentage in the first, and used a 7-0 run to get out to a 13-7 lead before pulling off the 25-16 win.
After a 25-21 setback in the third, Tech found themselves locked in a back-and-forth affair in the fourth as they attempted to put the match away. Knotted up at 5-5, a 5-0 run put the Warriors up 10-5, but Newberry came back to tie it up at 14-all. With the scored 23-23, back-to-back kills from
Aubree Eggers and
Jordan Aylward put the set and match away as the Warrior improved to 3-0 on the weekend.
Olivia Niekamp and Aylward both recorded 10 kills while Eggers had nine kills and hit a team-best .389.
Autumn Stokes dished out 23 assists while
Madeline MacDonald had a team-best 15 digs.
The Warriors continued their offensive showcase in the first set against West Virginia State by hitting .308 and demolishing the Yellow Jackets 25-13 to take the early lead. Back-to-back tight sets though found the Orange and Black behind 2-1, but the team rallied to take the fourth set, 25-16 to send their final match of the weekend into a decisive fifth set.
Tech had the advantage early with an 8-3 run and got to match point following a 4-0 run. West Virginia State battled back by winning the next three points to make it a 14-9 game, but an error on the Yellow Jackets gave the Warriors the 3-2 win and a perfect 4-0 weekend.
Eggers finished her weekend with a match-best 13 kills, a .480 attack percentage and five blocks, while Niekamp had 12 kills and a .364 hitting percentage. Alyward rounded out the net leaders with 10 kills and five blocks while Stokes added 25 assists.
Tech (4-0) returns to action next weekend as they travel to Richmond, Indiana for the IU East Red Wolves Invitational, where they will take on IU Kokomo, Marian, IU East and Saint Louis College of Pharmacy. Their first matchup with be against IU Kokomo on Friday at 12 p.m. from Lingle Court.
