HOUSTON – After a tight first set, HBU used a huge rally in the second and an offensive barrage in the third to cruise past McNeese, 3-0 (25-21, 25-14, 25-19), in Southland Conference volleyball Saturday night in Sharp Gym.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter
Reagan Leinen led the Huskies (3-1 SLC) with 12 kills and added two blocks, while senior outside hitter
Mikayla Vivens came up just short of a double-double with nine kills and 14 digs. Junior middle blocker
Jada Allen hit .500 with seven kills, led HBU with five blocks and had an ace. Sophomore right side
Anna Gadway had six kills, 13 digs, three blocks, while junior middle blocker
Ebonie Ballesteros added six kills and three blocks. Sophomore setter
Ellie Wipf dished out 36 assists, had three kills, four digs, three aces and two blocks. Redshirt freshman libero
Kaley Feris came up with 10 digs and served up a pair of aces, while freshman defensive specialist
Madeline McKinney chipped in with nine digs and an ace.
Kendall Glueck led the Cowgirls (2-4 SLC) with 12 kills and had two blocks, while Macee Krpec had eight kills. Regan Stiawalt was held to five kills and led McNeese with 12 digs. Madison Fontenot had eight digs and Caitlin Sharrock had 15 assists and seven digs.
The Huskies hit .287 for the match, while the Cowgirls hit .147. HBU outdug McNeese, 52-41, outblocked them, 8-4, and outaced them, 7-0.
The first set featured 16 ties and six lead changes and HBU trailed by two late at 19-17. The Huskies then got a kill from Vivens and scored the next two on Cowgirls errors to take a one-point lead. McNeese sided out on a kill by Stiawalt to tie it up, but HBU scored the next three on kills by Allen and Wipf, then the pair teamed up for a block to make it 23-20. After a Glueck kill ended the spurt, a service error sided the Huskies out and Vivens put away the set with a kill for the 25-21 decision.
HBU led 8-5 in the second, but McNeese scored three in a row to tie it up. The Huskies answered by ripping off a nine-point run for a 17-8 lead, as the Cowgirls committed five attack errors during the spurt. Wipf closed out the frame with an ace for the largest margin of the set at 25-14.
The Huskies hit .412 in the third set, with 18 kills and only four errors, while posting four blocks and recording an ace. The set was tied, 11-11, when Ballesteros and Gadway had back-to-back kills and Allen and Vivens came up with a block for a three-point lead. The Cowgirls were back within one at 16-15, but pair of Wipf kills bookended a kill by Leinen to stretch the lead to four. Leading 22-19, HBU scored the last three points of the set on kills by Gadway and Vivens and an emphatic block by Allen and Gadway on match point.
HBU returns to action when it hosts UIW Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Sharp Gym. The match will be shown on the Husky Sports Network.
