No. 22 Taylor Volleyball Routs IWU, 3-0
September 30, 2009
The No. 22 Taylor University volleyball team improved to 15-3 on the season with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-16) win against Indiana Wesleyan University (5-17) Wednesday evening. Taylor maintained its first place position in the Mid-Central College Conference with a perfect 4-0 record.
Sophomore Kelsey Pritchard led the Trojans with 17 kills on 25 swings. Pritchard attacked at a team-best .680 clip with zero errors. Junior Jackie Geile finished the match with 11 kills, while senior Colleen Nelis notched ten kills without an error. Sophomore setter Betsy Brown dished out 39 assists. Freshman Courtney Herschberger led the team in digs with 13, and four different Trojans had one block apiece.
Taylor totaled 46 kills and a .320 attack percentage, while holding the Wildcats to 23 kills and a meager .057 attack percentage. The Trojans outdug Indiana Wesleyan 39-34, and had three total blocks to IWU's two.
"Our offense did a great job tonight connecting with our setter and it was great to see several players with such a high efficiency," Taylor head coach Brittany Smith said. "Our other main focus was on our serving game and I felt that with the aggressive serves we put in play, we did a good job limiting what Indiana Wesleyan's offense could run."
The Trojans got off to a good start with a 25-14 first set win against the Wildcats. Taylor took a 7-2 lead after two kills from Pritchard, one kill each from Geile and Rachel Kizer, with three IWU hitting errors mixed in. Taylor stretched the lead to 20-9 on three straight Wildcat hitting errors. A kill from Geile and two more from Pritchard closed out the set for the Trojans.
Taylor once again took control with an 8-3 lead in the second set following an ace by freshman Hope Knowling, but the Wildcats took their first lead of the match at 10-9 following two straight aces from Lauren Barfell. However, Taylor fought back with back-to-back kills from Pritchard to regain the lead. Four kills by Nelis in the next 13 points grew the Trojans lead to 21-14 and forced IWU into their third timeout. Geile took over for Taylor with three more kills, including the final point of the set.
The third and final set was the most dominant for the Trojans as they hit at a .344 clip and won 25-16. The early stages saw Taylor jump out to an 11-3 lead thanks to three kills apiece from Pritchard and Nelis. Indiana Wesleyan hung around and narrowed the margin to 21-15 on another ace from Barfell. Taylor would score four of the next five points to close out the match on a service ace from Herschberger.
All fourteen players on the Trojans roster saw action in the Taylor lineup.
"It was great to see so many of our players contribute on the court tonight as we know that playing experience will help us down the road," Smith said. "As we move into the second half of our season, I'm excited to see how our team continues to pull together and elevate their level of play."
IWU freshman outside hitter Rachel Quackenbush led the Wildcats with seven kills.
After an off weekend, the Trojans are back in action Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. versus Grace College.