LEBANON, Tenn. – Volleyball split its two matches Saturday at the Cumberland Volleydawg Classic. After dropping a hard-fought five-set match to Union (23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 19-25, 15-13) the Bears rebounded quickly with a sweep of host Cumberland (25-23, 25-18, 25-19) in what was a non-conference match against the hosts. The sweep against Cumberland came just two days after SSU needed the full five games to finally down CU in their MSC matchup on Thursday.
In the opening match against Union, the Bears quickly found themselves in a 10-4 deficit. However, they would take eight of the next 10 points to tie the match at 12-all. Once the game was tied at 13-all, an attack error by the Bulldogs put the Bears ahead for the first time and they would lead by as many as seven, 21-14. Union would come back to tie the opener at 22-all but the Bears capped the game with a service ace from Hannah Gephart to go up 1-0.
Looking to go up 2-0, the Bears play a back-and-fourth game that was tied on seven different occasions. However, the final tie which came at 12-all, would also start a Union stretch in which it rallied to take a commanding 21-12 lead. The Bears would fight back but ultimately that deficit proved to large in the 25-21 game. The Bears held a brief lead very early in the middle game but once Union took a 5-4 lead, it would not relinquish it on the way to a 25-18 victory to go up 2-1.
Needing a victory to keep the match alive and down 12-9 in the fourth game, SSU went on a 10-point rally to go up 19-12 before closing out the game with a 25-19 win to force the decisive fifth game. The decisive game would be tied at seven different points by the time the score with nine-all. Union then took three straight games to go up 12-9 but the Bears refused to go away quietly, getting within a point at 13-12. However, neither side would gain a service point for the rest of the match as two side-outs gave Union a 15-13 game victory and the five-set match.
Devan Scarberry was one of three SSU hitters to finish with 10-plus kills as she recorded a team and career-high thirteen in the match. Lauren Helbig and Paige Zelich also added 12 kills in the win. Despite recording 67 kills overall in the match, the Bears' attack also committed 34 errors, 11 of which came in the opening game that the Bears eventually won. Some of those attack problems were caused by Union who blocked 12 attacks in the match. Bonnie Huesing finished with a team-high 21 assists in the opening match while Gephart tallied 18. Brittany Mounts also recorded her first double-digit assist tally of her young career with 10 helpers.
Kirsti Yates led the team in digs for the match with a total of 26 while Carly Mazza and Gephart chipped in with 18 and 12, respectively. The Bears recorded just six blocks over the entire match but five of them came with aid of Kristi Humble's team-high five block assists. SSU held Union to just a .191 hitting percentage for the match but the Bulldogs were able to manage a .296 hitting percentage in the decisive game.
After a tough defeat in the opening match, Shawnee State bounced back with a convincing win against Cumberland, a team it took five games to beat just two days ago. The opening set of that match saw the Bears and Bulldogs tied on 14 different occasions. Despite the last time the Bears trailed in the opening set being 12-11, they just could not seem to pull away with the final tie of the game coming at 23-all. However, a kill from Zelich and a bad set on the CU side of the net would give the Bears their final two points to go up a game.
In the process of going up 2-0, the Bears would never trail the Bulldogs during the second set and led by six early, 8-2. However, CU would pull within a point as late at 17-16. Rhyanna Day's service would get the match to 21-16 before closing out the 25-19 second game.
During the clinching game of the sweep, the Bears found themselves tied at 18-all. But ran off five straight points that was started by a CU service error to make it 23-18. After a CU side-out, the Bears got kills from Ashley Galbraith and Mounts to seal the victory.
The Bears hit .327 for the match against CU with Zelich's 13 kills leading the way. Zelich finished with just two errors in her 19 attempts and hit .579 individually for the match. Galbraith and Scarberry each recorded nine kills for the victors. In the second match, it was Gephart that led the team with 24 assists while Huesing tallied 17 helpers.
Madison Smith led the team with 13 digs against CU while Yates finished 11 digs. In addition to a team-high three service aces, Mazza added 10 digs to give three Bears double-digit totals in that category for the match. The overall defensive effort held Cumberland just a .208 hitting percentage for the match, including hitting percentages under .200 in the first two games.
With the trip in Cumberland trip coming to a close, volleyball will finally get a chance to host its first home match of the season next Tuesday, September 24 at St. Catharine comes to town for a 6 p.m. MSC matchup. This will begin a streak of four straight home matches for the Bears.
