Richmond, Ky. – The Eastern Kentucky volleyball Colonels pushed their win streak to six matches with a 3-1 victory over East Tennessee State on Friday. Eastern opened up its play in the Nike/Comfort Suites Classic by hitting a season-best .289 against the visiting Buccaneers (0-5) to move to 6-1 on the year.

Eastern's offense got a boost from sophomore Kasha Brozek and junior Liz Guard, both of whom hit over .500 in the match. Brozek hit a career-best .562 after tallying 11 kills on 16 swings with just two errors. Guard established a new career high of her own, tallying 15 kills off 26 swings (with two errors) for a .500 percentage. Guard added a match-high seven blocks in the win (two solos, five assists).

Senior Lesley Aldridge recorded her seventh double-double of the year with an 18-kill, 13-dig performance, while sophomore Kelly Jennings posted a double-double of her own, dishing out 50 assists to go with 11 digs. Freshman Brittany Nobilio led the team in digs for the seventh time this season, finishing with a match-high 18.

The Colonels picked up a 30-19 win in game one after racking up a .303 hitting percentage over the first stanza (compared to ETSU's .000 mark). EKU benefited from three kills a piece from freshman Amy Arlinghaus, Aldridge and Guard to pick up the victory.

The Buccaneers evened things up by pulling out a 30-27 victory in game two, thanks in part to seven kills from Jennifer Sartor. ETSU rebounded from their game one struggles to hit .292 as a team in the second set.

Facing a 1-all tie, the Colonels went on to hit .303 and .395, respectively, over the final two games to pull out the victory. Eastern took a hard-fought 30-24 victory in game three before closing out the match with a 30-18 win in the fourth (where they held ETSU to a .054 hitting percentage).

The Colonels return to action Saturday morning for day two of the Nike/Comfort Suites Classic with a noon bout against Lipscomb. Eastern closes out the tournament with a 5 p.m. match against Evansville, who opened up the event with a 3-0 win over the Lady Bisons.



NIKE/Comfort Suites Classic (Richmond, Ky.)
Friday, Sept. 10
Evansville def. Lipscomb (3-0)
EKU def. ETSU (3-1)

Saturday, Sept. 11
ETSU vs. Evansville (10 a.m.)
EKU vs. Lipscomb (noon)
Lipscomb vs. ETSU (3 p.m.)
EKU vs. Evansville (5 p.m.)