The volleyball team opened up play in the GLIAC tournament Thursday against a familiar foe in Northern Michigan. The game was the quarterfinal of the tournament and the winner would move on to face host Ferris State on Saturday.

Northern Michigan

The Eagles overmatched the Wildcats early and often in the match as they cruised to a three set sweep, 25-16, 25-10 and 25-22.

In the first two sets AU never trailed as they came out gunning. The Eagles separated themselves when up 6-5 and scored four straight. The Wildcats never got closer than two from that point on in the set as the Eagles wouldn’t let up their relentless attack. The Eagles finished off the attack with three straight kills by freshman Kathy Fletcher, who led the team in kills for the match with 15 and a hitting percentage of .393.

In the second set, Ashland led 3-2 early before going on a 10-2 run to take a commanding 13-4 lead over the Wildcats. NMU wouldn’t give up though and crept back to within six with the score at 15-9. The Eagles answered though, scoring nine straight points to all but seal the set at 24-9 before exchanging points to end the set.

The third set was closely contested as the Wildcats took an early 4-1 lead, but the Eagles weren’t out of it as they played their way to a 9-8 lead after a kill by freshman Alyx Crislip. The set was still tight later on as the Eagles were up 18-16, and remained within two at 22-20 after a NMU timeout. With the score 23-22, freshman Kathy Fletcher went on and scored the last two points in the set to win the match for the Eagles.

Senior Anesia Benton had nine kills for the match. Sophomore Kate Eckels led the team in digs with 12 while senior Arian Martin contributed 11 of her own. Junior Crystal Elliott had 35 assists, seven kills, seven digs and two block assists.

Ferris State

The Eagles traveled to Ferris State for their semifinal matchup and faced a tough challenge ahead of them. AU had played FSU earlier in the season and was swept in straight sets by the Bulldogs. FSU was ranked No. 12 in the nation for this match. The ranking showed too, as the Eagles were swept in straight sets, 25-15, 25-17, 25-19 by the Bulldogs.

The first two sets were slow for the Eagles as they came out sluggish and couldn’t establish a lead at any point in the sets. In fact, Ferris State (who is No. 18 in the country in blocks) blocked five of AU’s attacks in the first set alone.

The Eagles tried to battle back in the third set, climbing to within two (19-17) at one point. The close game was then opened up as FSU went on to score five straight points to put the set out of reach and close the Eagles’ tournament as well as their season.

The Eagles were led in kills by freshman Alyx Crislip, who had nine kills with a .364 hitting percentage. Junior Crystal Elliott had 28 assists and finished the season with a total of 1,010, making it three consecutive seasons in which she had posted 1,000+ assists. Senior Arian Martin finished with 15 digs in her last game and finishes her career with 1,779 total digs, placing her second on AU’s all-time digs list.

All-GLIAC teams

In other news coming from the GLIAC tournament, three Ashland University players were named to All-GLIAC teams. Senior libero Arian Martin was named to the All-GLIAC first team. Martin had been an honorable mention twice in her career. For the season, Martin had 437 total digs and was fourth in the league in digs per set with a .433. She never had less than eight digs in a game this year.

Senior outside hitter Anesia Benton was named to the All-GLIAC second team. Benton had a total of 231 kills this season with a .295 hitting percentage. This was her second consecutive year being selected as an all-conference player. She finished her career with 848 total kills and 103 total blocks.

Freshman outside hitter Kathy Fletcher was named a GLIAC honorable mention for the season. Fletcher led the team in kills in her first season with the team, totaling 258 as well as adding 24 blocks and 95 digs.

Another honor was bestowed upon an Ashland University player as well, with freshman Alyx Crislip being named to the All-GLIAC Tournament team. Crislip had 13 kills for the week with a .278 hitting percentage.

The Eagles finished their season with a 15-13 overall record and a 12-7 GLIAC regular season record.