UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team came back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Saginaw Valley State 3-1 Friday (Oct. 20) at Hamilton Gym. The Huskies won their fifth match and their last six outings to improve to 10-11 overall and 6-4 in the GLIAC.
“Our offense was really strong, especially once we got that first set out of our system,” Tech coach Matt Jennings said. “Our first ball touch was shaky at times still, but we got some really good blocking from our front line as the match went along.”
Tech fell 25-19 in the opening set and trailed 16-12 in the second before starting its comeback. After scoring four of the next five points, Brynn Erickson got behind the serving line and the Huskies reeled off eight straight even after a pair of timeouts by the hosts. A Rachel Zurek kill got it to setpoint, and Kaycee Meiners put it away to tie the match after a 25-21 win. Zurek and Meiners combined for a dozen kills in the second.
The Huskies didn’t trail for the rest of the match and led by as many as six on three different occasions in the third. Tech hit .324 in the third with Meg Raabe putting down six kills and Kaycee Meiners adding five. Meiners got it to setpoint before Rachel Zurek and Lindy Oujiri teamed up on the set-clinching win.
Tech hopped out to an 11-1 lead in the fourth and never looked back in a 25-17 win. Six different Huskies registered a kill in the final frame with Tech blocking five attacks.
Kaycee Meiners led four Huskies in double figures with a career-high 17 kills while hitting .615 and adding four blocks. Meg Raabe and Lindy Oujiri added 13 kills, and Rachel Zurek finished with 10. Tess Hayes set the attack with 49 assists and added 12 digs. Amelia Albers (14) and Brynn Erickson (11) also added double-digit digs.
“Our middles were excellent on both sides of the ball tonight,” added Jennings. “They continue to make us a very dangerous team at the net, and scored a ton of points in serve receive and transition. They had a really hard time stopping Kaycee all match. Lindy and Meg got the job done for us at the pin and took a bunch of big cuts for us.”
Tech wraps up the weekend at 3 p.m. Saturday at Wayne State.
“Wayne is playing some good ball right now,” Jennings said. “We’ll have to clean it up a bit and be ready for tomorrow.”
The Warriors swept Northern Michigan Friday.
2023-10-21 04:08:58
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