Golden Eagles Use Sweep to Defeat Lyon for Second Time
SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. (October 22, 2014) -- For the second time this season, the John Brown volleyball team (17-8) defeated Lyon (Ark.), this time in sweeping fashion (25-22, 25-14, 25-18) behind 13 Audrey Dearien kills and 20 Shayna Daniels assists tonight at Bill George Arena to claim its third-consecutive win.
With her 13-termination output, Dearien nears a personal milestone in 1,000 career kills. Currently at 999, the junior outside hitter will look to accomplish the feat in JBU’s next match, a Saturday (Oct. 25) tilt at Wayland Baptist (Texas).
“It was good to round out our four-match homestead with a win,” said head coach Ken Carver after his team capped off a 3-1 streak at Bill George Arena. “Being that our next five matches are on the road, we definitely wanted to take some momentum with us and play well in front of the home crowd tonight too. We played a much better match against Lyon tonight than we did the first time around. Their setter really hurt us the last time with a lot of short kills. While we picked up 5 aces on the match we made far too many errors from the service line tonight for my liking. We definitely want to be aggressive and look to score as many points as we can, but we cannot routinely give up 2.6 service errors to every service ace we get.
“I thought we were going to get Audrey her 1,000 career kill to end the match, but it only ended up being 999. Regardless of that fact, her emphatic kill to end the match was a great note to end on and being 1 kill shy will leave her a bit hungrier for our upcoming match against Wayland Baptist.”
Junior outside hitter Melissa Bakke contributed nine kills while sophomore middle hitter Molli Pugh added eight in the win. Freshman setter Alyssa Arnold tallied 12 helpers and senior defensive specialist Becca Young chipped in with a match-high nine digs.
In a match that featured both teams struggling from the service line, the visiting Scots earned three service aces but committed 11 errors. Conversely, the Golden Eagles managed five aces, but stumbled with 13 miscues from the service line. Lyon experienced a difficult attacking night, managing a mere .105 attack percentage (24-15-86) while John Brown rode an impressive .440 percent in the second set to end the match with a .319 hitting percentage (42-12-94).
Bakke’s kill in the first set broke a 7-all deadlock, handing the Golden Eagles the lead for good in the stanza. The lead grew to as many as six, 17-11, when back-to-back Dearien terminations proceeded a Lyon error. Lyon didn’t back down, however, and rallied on a 6-2 run to pull within two, 19-17, but a Courtney Marshall kill ended the Scot comeback bid as JBU captured set one, 25-22.
For the first time in the match, John Brown found itself behind early in the second set. Behind the service of Daniels, the Golden Eagles rallied on a 6-0 run that featured an ace and terminations from Bakke, Pugh and a pair from junior outside hitter Tiffany Hunnicutt. Dearien then took over in the middle of the second set, throwing down a quartet of kills, handing the hosts a 17-12 lead. Three-straight errors by Lyon placed the set out of reach, handing JBU a 20-12 lead. Three more visitor miscues setup the final kill from senior outside hitter Vanessa Uhrhahn as the Golden Eagles took a 2-0 lead after a 25-14 set two win.
The two squads battled in the third set as neither team could gain a large lead, the greatest a 10-6 John Brown advantage. Lyon pulled within scores of 12-11 and 15-13, but with Young serving, a pair of terminations from Pugh and Uhrhahn fueled JBU on a 5-0 run. With a solid 21-15 lead, Dearien helped shut the door for good with two kills down the stretch, including the game-sealer, as the hosts won set three, 25-18, and the match in straight sets.
Katarina Frickleton led Lyon with six kills on the evening while Mackenzie Sharp and Carson Ward each chipped in with four apiece. Emily Sprick assisted on 19 successful Scot attacks and Lyon ended with a 4-2 advantage in team blocks.
”We look forward to matching up with the No. 22 team in the country and see if we can work some more magic on the court to pick up another crucial conference win at this important time of the season,” Carver added on JBU’s next match in Plainview, Texas, this Saturday. “Wayland is riding a lot of momentum right now having not dropped another conference match since playing us the first time and bringing OBU’s consecutive conference match winning streak to an end recently so they are obviously playing very well right now. We’ll need to bring another concerted and focused effort in our match with them and should we do that we should be right there with them. At that point, anything can happen as was the case the last time we played them.”
