HOUSTON – HBU hit -.091 in dropping the first set to UIW, but the Huskies roared back to take the next three for a 3-1 (19-25, 25-11, 25-16, 25-23) victory in Southland Conference volleyball Thursday night in Sharp Gym.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter
Reagan Leinen led the Huskies (4-1 SLC) with 12 kills, while junior middle blocker
Jada Allen had 10 kills, four aces, three digs and two blocks. Senior outside hitter
Mikayla Vivens had seven kills, 12 digs and three blocks and junior middle blocker
Ebonie Ballesteros had seven kills and seven blocks. Sophomore setter
Ellie Wipf racked up 37 assists to go along with four kills, nine digs and four blocks. Sophomore right side
Anna Gadway led HBU defensively with 15 digs while adding four kills. Freshman defensive specialist
Madeline McKinney came up with 11 digs and redshirt freshman libero
Kaley Feris chipped in with eight and a pair of aces.
Bethany Clapp had 12 kills, six digs and three blocks for the Cardinals (2-4 SLC) and Chase Jackson had 11 kills. Jacqueline Arrington added seven kills and two blocks. Natalie Martin dished out 29 assists with 11 digs and Audrey Patton led UIW with 17 digs.
HBU ended up hitting .142 for the match, while UIW hit only .102. The Huskies outdug the Cardinals, 61-57, outblocked them, 9-6, and outaced them, 10-1.
The Cardinals led 15-14 in the first, then scored the next two to go up by three. Down the stretch, Clapp had a pair of kills and five in the set to lead UIW to the 25-19 win.
The Huskies answered back in the second, ripping off a nine-point run, which included three aces by Allen and two blocks and a kill by Ballesteros, to take a 14-4 lead. HBU went on to tie the match with a 25-11 decision.
HBU broke an 8-8 tie in the third by scoring three-straight points, then went up by five at 15-10. After a Cardinals side out, the Huskies scored three more to make it an 18-11 advantage. HBU took command with a four-point spurt to make the score 23-14, then a kill and block by Ballesteros capped a 25-16 set victory.
The fourth set was back-and-forth with 12 ties and six lead changes. The Huskies trailed 16-15, but scored the next four points to go up, 19-16. The Cardinals got to within one four times down the stretch, including match point at 24-23, but Leinen put away a kill for the narrow 25-23 margin.
The Huskies return to action when they hit the road to take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday at 3 p.m. at Dugan Wellness Center in Corpus Christi.
