Wayne State

The AU women’s volleyball team had nothing but earning victory on their minds going into their second to last match of the season on Friday night.

The Eagles cruised their way to a 3-1 win over the Wayne State Warriors (16-12, 10-7) (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) at Kate’s Gymnasium on senior night.

The win gave Ashland its 22nd victory of the season and it also offered the Eagles a little taste of revenge.

Ashland was swept by the Warriors three sets to none Sept. 17 at Wayne State. AU head coach Cass Dixon said that the focus on this matchup was more geared towards getting a win rather than revenge.

“It’s always great to get a win regardless of what we did before,” she said. “A win is a win and that puts us one step closer to our goal.”

The Eagles got off to a fast start early in the match, taking the first set 25-18 over the Warriors.

Much of the credit for the early lead was because of the play of junior outside hitter Kate Eckels. Eckels had 7 of her team-leading 19 kills in the first set.

The Eagles continued their momentum into the second set, accumulating a 22-17 lead. It looked like they were going to go up two sets to none, but the Warriors came storming back to win the second set 26-24.

“We got a little tight in the second set,” Dixon said. “We said just go back to what was working.”

The Eagles did just that in the third set. They came back to win the set 25-19 after being down 3-6 early. From there, AU didn’t look back, winning the fourth and final set 25-20.

“We stuck to our gameplan,” Dixon said. “That was the key for tonight was to beat them on defense and be relentless in our pursuit of everything.”

The Eagles’ defense definitely stood out in the match as they out-dug the Warriors 61-48 in the four-set match. Megan Rohlfs led the Eagles with 22 digs.

On senior night, Ashland’s two seniors had solid performances to vault the Eagles to the win. Outside hitter Brittany Snider was second on the team in kills (13) and digs (11). She also led the team in blocks with four. Setter Crystal Elliot tallied 42 assists for the Eagles.

Junior Baley Bernthisel led the Warriors with 12 kills and blocks.

Findlay

Inconsistency throughout the match with serving and passing served as the Achilles’ heel Saturday in the Eagles’ 3-2 loss to Findlay.

Despite the loss, the Eagles (22-7, 12-6) did have match-high stats for a number of players.

Senior outside hitter Brittany Snider finished with 26 kills, junior defensive specialist Megan Rohlfs had 29 digs on the night and senior setter Crystal Elliott dished out 51 assists.

For the Oilers (14-16, 10-8), Lindsy Reindel led the team with 15 kills, Danielle Taflinger led the Oilers with seven blocks and Becca Shoemaker finished the match with 18 digs.

During the match, the Eagles got off to a strong start decisively taking the first set from the Oilers 25-17. Findlay then proceeded to win the next two heavily contested sets 25-23, 25-21.

But the turning point of the match came when the Eagles came from behind to win the fourth set 25-21.

The fifth set saw the Eagles take an early lead until the set was tied 7-7 and then from that point on the Eagles slid downward and lost the set and the match 15-8.

“Our inconsistencies caught up with us,” head coach Cass Dixon said. “There were bits and spurts that we played really, really well and then there were times where we did not execute that way we should have executed.”

The Eagles played Northern Michigan on Wednesday the first round of the GLIAC tournament in a match that happened after press time.

Ashland was the fourth seed and Northern Michigan was the fifth seed.

Earlier in the regular season, Ashland defeated NMU 3-2.

“It’s going to be back to the basics for us,” Dixon said. “We can’t stop, we can’t give up and we have to keep moving forward.”