Northern Michigan

After a weekend that included 12 sets in three days, the Ashland volleyball team had the entire week off to rest up for the upcoming schedule. This past weekend the team continued GLIAC play against the Northern Michigan squad and did not disappoint.

The Eagles took down the Wildcats in straight sets to improve their record to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the GLIAC. They won the sets with scores of 25-16, 25-23, 25-23.

The team never trailed in the first set after going up 11-6 on a service by sophomore Megan Rohlfs. They never looked back after that. Four Eagles had multiple kills in the first set, including senior Anesia Benton who had three in the first set and finished the match with eight. Susie Jonas and Kathy Fletcher also added two kills in the first set.

Junior Crystal Elliot once again distributed the ball well and finished the game with a total of 39 assists as well as four block assists.

The second set was a lot closer than the first, with four lead changes throughout the set. Then, when AU had a 24-20 lead, NMU went on to score the next three points before an Ashland timeout that was followed by the set-deciding kill by Jonas. Brittany Snider had six kills in the set, with Jonas adding five more.

In the third set, the Eagles squandered an 18-11 lead, getting down 23-22 in the third set before going on a kill streak of three to close out the game.

Snider finished the game with the team high in kills, 12, and hit .189 for the match. As a team, the Eagles hit .241 while limiting the Wildcats to just .173. The Wildcats did not block any of Ashland’s attacks in the match.

On the backline, Kate Eckels led the team with 16 digs, while Senior Arian Martin produced 10.

Michigan Tech

The following day, Ashland finished up their five-game home stand with a match against the Michigan Tech Huskies. The Eagles took the matc with their second straight-set sweep in two days, 25-19, 25-14, 25-17. The Eagles, now 6-3 (4-1 GLIAC), took it to the Huskies, hitting a hot .361 for the match.

The Eagles didn’t trail once in the first two sets, but trailed 11-6 early in the third set. From then on though, the Eagles went on an 11-1 run to give themselves a 17-12 lead. The Eagles didn’t have to worry after that as Freshman Kathy Fletcher finished off the match with two straight kills.

Fletcher led the team throughout the match totaling 12 kills on only 16 attacks to post a hitting percentage of .750 which ties for the fourth highest in AU history for a single match. Fletcher is currently hitting .269 for the season and has 73 total kills thus far.

The rest of the offense looked fresh as well with junior Brittany Snider and freshman Alyx Crislip both producing eight kills each. Senior Anesia Benton also produced six kills for the match with a .417 percentage.

Junior Crystal Elliott had three kills, 31 assists and 10 digs for another double-double. Senior libero Arian Martin totaled 11 digs for the match. Also, freshman Maureen Johnson made an appearance in her first college game and recorded her first career kill.

The team travels this weekend for the first time since the start of the season, going on the road to Tiffin University. They finish the weekend at Ohio Dominican.