The Dominican University women's volleyball team upended the Benedictine University Eagles in three sets (29-27, 25-23, 25-23) on Wednesday night in Lisle, Illinois, to improve to 2-0 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play.
Dominican trailed by as many as seven points in the opening set and faced a 24-18 deficit before rattling off six straight points and then staved off set point at 25-24 to top the Eagles in the first set, igniting the sweep for the Stars.
Junior Kendyl Todd knocked down nine of her match-high 15 kills in the opening set, accounting for nearly half of Dominican's 19 kills in the first set.
As a team, the Stars hit a season-high .238 for the match while posting eight blocks defensively to limit the Eagles to a .150 attack percentage with 34 kills to 17 errors.
Jackie Mursuli ran the Stars' offense, collecting 36 assists, utilizing six different hitters including
Rosalyn Wyse and
Erica Freudinger who totaled nine kills apiece while
Alex Kisten came off the Stars' bench to knock down six kills in two sets.
"This is the best our offense has been thus far this season," said
Jeanne Czipri, the Stars' third-year head coach. "That has been one of the challenges we have been working through all season, both with our setters and hitters, so it was great to see both parts come together."
Defensively, Todd added four total blocks to amass 17 points while Freudinger and
Becky Dent added three total blocks apiece. In the back row,
Megan Parker and
Lauren LaVigne collected double-digit digs, 10 and 18 respectively.
"I was pleased to see us battle and win some high-pressure points and pull off the win in some tight sets," continued Czipri. "We have been struggling to do that this year, so watching our lineup finish like they did was very exciting. Hopefully this will bring some momentum into practice tomorrow and into this weekend."
The Stars, now 3-8 overall, will head to Waverly, Iowa, this weekend to compete in the NACC-IIAC Crossover, hosted by Wartburg College this year. Dominican will meet Wartburg, Coe, Buena Vista and Loras on Friday and Saturday before returning home to host the Edgewood College Eagles back in league play on Wednesday, September 28.
