Eau Claire, Wis. – The Gustavus Adolphus volleyball team went 1-1 on the opening day of the 2013 Sandy Schumacher Memorial Tournament held Friday at the McPhee Physical Education Center. The Gusties suffered a 3-0 loss to UW-Stevens Point in their opening match before earning a 3-2 victory over UW-Stout in the nightcap. Gustavus will head into Saturday’s round of matches with an overall record of 9-13.
Gustavus vs. UW-Stevens Point Recap
UW-Stevens Point picked up the 3-0 sweep via set scores of 25-22, 25-9, and 25-16.
The Pointers tallied 40 kills and hit at a rate of .290, while Gustavus posted 28 kills with an attack percentage of .105.
Leading the offense with her 11th double-digit kill performance of the season was Alyssa Taylor (Jr., Trimont, Minn.). Taylor finished with a match-high 15 kills to go along with just one attack error for a season-best attack percentage of .560. It was the third time this season that the junior recorded a hitting percentage above the .500 mark.
UW-Stevens Point’s Sarah Wildish matched Taylor’s 15 kill total, while Emma Brunkhorst posted 10.
Leading Gustavus’s defense was Paige Breneman (Jr., Sherburn, Minn.) who had 10 digs. Pointer Hannah Picel paced all back row players with 12 digs.
Kendra Weege (Jr., Watertown, Minn.) did the setting and finished with 25 assists.
Gustavus vs. UW-Stout Recap
Despite the sweep suffered in their opening round match, the Gusties bounced back with a hard-fought 3-2 win over UW-Stout to cap the day.
After Gustavus took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-19 win in set one, UW-Stout answered with two straight sets to go up 2-1. The Blue Devils won the second set 31-29 and the third 25-14. The Gusties tied the score at 2-2 with a 25-23 win in the fourth, and then went on to take the match with a 15-11 win in the decisive fifth set.
Coming off an impressive showing in the loss to UW-Stevens Point earlier in the night, Alyssa Taylor proved to be dominant in the front row once again. She hit the floor with a season/match-high 21 kills and registered an attack rate of .356. Her 21 kills is the highest total by a Gustavus player this season as it bested her previous team-high mark of 20 turned in against UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 7.
Finishing behind Taylor was Janessa Jahnke (Fy., Blue Earth, Min.) and Sarah Schuetz (So., Eagan, Minn.) who recorded 13 and 10 kills, respectively.
As a team, Gustavus had 54 kills with an attack percentage of .155. UW-Stout had 49 kills with an attack percentage of .156.
It one of the team’s best defensive performances of the year, Gustavus dug out a total of 80 UW-Stout attacks. The defense’s showing tonight is the second-best of the year, matching an 80-dig day against UM-Morris on Oct. 5.
Paige Breneman was again at the head of the defensive effort with a match-high 28 digs. The Sherburn, Minn. native has now reached her season/team-high dig mark of 28 on three occasions this year.
Also reaching double-figure digs was Natalie Watkins (Fy., Alexandria, Minn.) with 14, Haley Zweber (Fy., Rosemount, Minn.) with 13, Taylor Morton (Fy., Cody, Wyo.) with 11, and Kendra Weege with 10.
Weege finished with a double-double after serving as the primary setter. She shelled out a match-high 50 assists, which ranks second on the team this year.
The Gustavus volleyball team will cap the weekend tomorrow with a 10:00 a.m. match against host UW-Eau Claire and a noon match against UW-La Crosse.
For complete tournament information, please follow the link below.