Blocking game leads volleyball past SAGU in four
SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- Sophomore Kennedy Shelstead launched a team-high 12 kills and freshmen Jessica Meyer and Megan Beck each added three blocks as the John Brown University volleyball team defeated Southwestern A.G. (Texas) in four sets (25-10, 25-16, 25-17, 25-23) on Saturday (Sept. 24) afternoon inside Bill George Arena.
With the victory, the Golden Eagles run its Sooner Athletic mark to 4-2 and 13-6 overall. The Lions fell to 4-2 in league play, 12-8 overall.
Behind Shelstead's 12 terminations and trio of rejections, John Brown hit efficiently at .285 percent, while limiting the Lions to a .129 percent clip, including a pair of sets under .100 percent
"I'm really proud of how our ladies came back today after last night's hard-fought loss," head coach Ken Carver admitted of his team. "We expended a lot of emotional and physical energy in last night's match so I didn't know what to expect today. Our team came out hungry and really dialed in and we played some of our most efficient and effective volleyball to start the first two sets of the match. We did a much better job in our serving and passing game today and limited the amount of errors we had in both areas.
"We also had our most effective match of the season in terms of our serve-receive passing so Elizabeth and Alyssa were able to run a much more balanced attack this afternoon. Our defensive effort was good as well as we were able to hold another conference opponent to hitting under .150 for the match. SAGU, being the scrappy team they are, was able to pull out a win in set three and came close to doing it again in set four, but our team was able to not get rattled and close out the match."
Kali Shaw notched a match-high 14 kills while Sophia Ivy passed out 36 assists in the loss for SAGU.
Freshman Carly McKinney notched her second double-double of the weekend, terminating 11 of 31 attempts and digging 12 Lion attack attempts. Senior Molli Pugh also posted 11 kills in the win.
Junior Beth Brankle added 14 of John Brown's 59 digs.
The Golden Eagles return to action on Tuesday (Sept. 27) at Southwestern Christian (Okla.). First serve is slated for 7 p.m.
