Sophomore Kelle Nett led Gustavus with a combined 19 kills on the opening day of the Ground Round Sugar Loaf Classic.
Winona, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus volleyball team suffered a pair of losses on the opening day of the Ground Round Sugar Loaf Classic held Friday in the Gostomski Fieldhouse on the campus of Saint Mary’s University. The Gusties suffered a 3-0 loss to Luther College in their opening match and a tightly-contested 3-2 loss to UW-Stout in the nightcap. Gustavus will head into the final day of the Saint Mary’s Invite with a record of 0-2.
In Gustavus’s first match of the day against Luther, the Norse cruised in the first two sets before taking the match in a back-and-forth third set. Luther earned the sweep by set scores of 25-15, 25-11, and 25-23.
Luther recorded 35 kills and hit at a .293 attack percentage compared to Gustavus’s 19 kills and .096 attack percentage. The Gustie offense was led by Kelle Nett (So., Spring Valley, Ill.) who posted five kills and had an attack percentage of .300. Becca Woodstra (So., Minnetonka, Minn.) led the Gusties with eight digs and added four kills.
The Gusties jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in their match against UW-Stout later in the evening. Gustavus took the first set 25-22 and the second set 25-19. The Black and Gold had 15 kills in both the opening two frames and registered attack percentages of .270 and .267 in the first and second sets, respectively.
Facing a 2-0 deficit, UW-Stout turned things around with a 25-19 win in the third set and a 25-22 win in the fourth to tie the match up at 2-2.
The Blue Devils took the momentum of the third and fourth sets into the fifth, grabbing an 8-1 lead early. After Gustavus cut the deficit to 8-6, UW-Stout used a 5-2 run to go up 13-8. Kills by Molly Brion and Karley Wiensch put the contest in the books, allowing the Blue Devils the fifth set by the score of 15-10.
Kelle Nett once again paced Gustavus’s offense with 14 kills and an attack percentage of .355. Alyssa Taylor (Jr., Trimont, Minn.) finished next in line with 12 kills (.263), while Janessa Jahnke (Fy., Blue Earth, Minn.) had 11 (.089). Gustavus tallied 56 kills as a team and hit at a .160 clip.
On the defensive side, Paige Breneman (Jr., Sherburn, Minn.) led the squad with 28 digs and Haley Zweber (Fy., Rosemount, Minn.) finished behind her with 17. Taylor Meurer (Jr., Nicollet, Minn.) did the setting from start to finish, dishing out a total of 48 assists in the match.
The Gustavus volleyball team will be back in action tomorrow when it competes in the final day of the Ground Round Sugar Loaf Classic. The Gusties will face Dominican University at 10:00 a.m. and Lakeland University at 2:00 p.m.