BOX SCORE
RICHMOND, Ky. – Cassie Knutson logged her first triple-double of the season to aid the Eastern Kentucky University volleyball team in clipping Tennessee Tech in a five set thriller Friday night at McBrayer Arena.
Eastern won by scores of 26-28, 27-25, 25-16, 24-26 and 15-7.
EKU came out of the break hot to enter the third stanza. With the squads even at 10-10 a kill from freshman
Lauren Kolenik sparked an 8-1 Colonel run that ended on a kill from
Nikki Drost to push Eastern ahead 18-11. Errors plagued TTU, giving EKU its final seven points, sealing the set, 25-16.
After exchanging points for the entirety of the fourth set, a duo of K'Vonna Johnson kills, an attack error from EKU and another Tech kill pushed the Golden Eagles ahead 26-24.
The Colonels made quick work of Tennessee Tech in the final set, after hitting a clip of .391 and opening on a 5-0 run. TTU cut into the lead with a trio of kills, 5-3, but EKU answered with a trifecta of its own, 8-3. The Golden Eagles threw the first punches after the side switch, but the Colonels responded and again pushed the lead, 13-6.
Celina Sanks came up big with a service ace to set match point, 14-6. Drost sealed off the match with a commanding kill, 15-7.
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In the first set the teams went point-for-point until the Golden Eagles scored four unanswered to grab the largest lead of the stanza, 23-18. Back-to-back kills from
Kaylin Johnson and Drost drew the Colonels within three, 23-20. A service error from EKU pushed the TTU lead back out to four, but a duo of kills from Knutson, another from Drost and an attack error evened the set at 24-24. Two more attack errors, one from each side of the net, and a kill from both sides knotted the score again, 26-26. Tech's Taylor Houck then put two more balls down back-to-back to push the Golden Eagles ahead, 28-26.
The second set appeared to be a mirror image of the first with the teams knotted at 20 apiece, but two Colonel errors and a kill pushed the Golden Eagles ahead 23-20. Knutson then came up with a kill to drive EKU to four unanswered points, taking the lead 24-20. A Knutson service ace and a kill from Kolenik ended the set and evened the match 1-1.
TTU's K'Vonna Johnson set the pace for all players with 18 kills while Susie Jeziorowski also led the carge with 43 assists.
Four Colonels notched double-digits in kills: Knutson (11), Kolenik (12), Sanks (14) and Drost (15). Knutson and
Maria Ferragonio racked up 23 assists apiece.
Chloe Rojas led all players with 25 digs, Drost (13), Sanks (12) and Knutson (11) followed closely behind.
Ciera Koons led the front line with four blocks.
EKU moves to 4-13, 2-1 in league action while Tennessee Tech drops to 2-13, 0-3 in the OVC.
The Colonels play game two of this three game home swing against Jacksonville State tomorrow at 2 p.m.
