Minneapolis – The Gustavus Adolphus volleyball suffered its first lost in two matches at the hands of Augsburg College on Wednesday night in Si Melby Hall. The Auggies earned a 3-0 victory via set scores of 25-8, 26-24, and 25-17. Gustavus drops to 9-11 overall and 4-2 in the MIAC, while Augsburg improves to 18-4 overall and 6-1 in the MIAC.
Augsburg gave Gustavus little hope in the opening frame, jumping out to a 10-2 lead and cruising from that point on.
The second set played out much differently as the two squads traded points for the entirety of the second set. The largest lead of the set came when Augsburg grabbed a 19-16 edge on a kill by Jessica Lillquist. However, Gustavus responded with three straight points to tie the set score at 19-19. With the score locked at 24-24, the Auggies took a two game lead in the match with two consecutive points capped off by an Ellen Sachs kill.
Gustavus got off to a slow start in the third, trailing 8-2 following an Augsburg Ace. Although the Gusties battled back to bring the score within two points (12-10), the Auggies rattled off six straight to take an 18-10 advantage. There was no looking back after the scoring run as the closest Gustavus would get was five points (20-15).
As a team, the Black and Gold hit at a rate of .120 with 33 kills. Augsburg hit .257 and recorded 39 kills.
Leading Gustavus’s offense was Alyssa Taylor (Jr., Trimont, Minn.) who finished with 11 kills and just one error for an attack percentage of .476.
Augsburg’s offense was paced by Ashley Pepper who tallied a match-high 12 kills with a .242 attack percentage.
Abby Leitch (Fy., Mankato, Minn.) saw her four-match streak of recording 20 more digs come to an end with a team-best 12 kills on the evening. Paige Breneman (Sr., Sherburn, Minn.) and Kendra Weege (Sr., Watertown, Minn.) finished next in line for Gustavus with nine kills each. Augsburg’s Mackensie Menke led all defensive players with 18 digs, while four other Auggies finished with nine.
Marisa Morgan (Sr., Rockford, Ill.) did Gustavus’s setting and finished with 24 assists. Courtney Lemke set for Augsburg and totaled 30.
The Gustavus volleyball team will head back into tournament play this weekend when it travels to River Falls, Wisconsin for the UW-River Falls Tournament being held Oct. 17-18. The Gusties will begin the weekend on Friday with matches against Central College at 1:00 p.m. and UW-Stout at 3:00 p.m.