Trojans Earn 30th Win, Two Reach 1,000 Kills

October 31, 2009

The No. 17 Taylor volleyball team won a pair of matches Saturday at the Trojan Challenge as Taylor earned its fourth straight 30-win season. The Trojans opened the day with a win in a rare non-conference meeting with Indiana Wesleyan, 3-2 (23-25, 23-25, 25-15, 28-26, 15-6) before defeating Ohio Dominican 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-19).

With the two wins, Taylor improves to 30-5 with one regular season match remaining.

An additional milestone was achieved Saturday by two different Trojans when sophomore Kelsey Pritchard (Indianapolis, Ind.) and junior Jackie Geile (Muskegon, Mich.) each recorded their 1,000th career kills within a three hour time span.

Pritchard achieved the mark on her second of 27 kills in the win over Indiana Wesleyan. Geile reached No. 1,000 with her tenth and final kill early in the third set of the Ohio Dominican match. There are now 18 members in Taylor's 1,000-kill club, led by all-time NAIA kills leader Natalie Steele with 3,602 career kills.

The Trojans dug themselves a 2-0 hole to start the match against Indiana Wesleyan, but rallied from behind to win the next three sets for their 20th straight win over conference opponents in regular season matches.

In the win over the Wildcats, setter Betsy Brown dished out 60 assists for the second highest total of her career. A pair of juniors, Geile (16 kills/15 digs) and Rachel Kizer (13 kills/16 digs), both turned in double-doubles. Colleen Nelis led Taylor with 5 blocks.

Against Ohio Dominican, the Trojans controlled the match from the outset and won in straight sets for the 18th time this season. Four different freshmen recorded career highs in the win: Whitney Sweet had 42 assists, Ali Swart knocked down nine kills, while Courtney Herschberger (24) and Hope Knowling (16) had season high dig totals.

Following the final match, Pritchard was voted by the coaches to the Trojan Challenge All-Tournament team for her 66 kills in four matches at the weekend event.

Taylor closes out the regular season against Goshen at 7 p.m. Wednesday evening for senior night in Odle Arena.

Indiana Wesleyan Box Score  |  Ohio Dominican Box Score  |  Trojan Challenge Results