A strong defensive effort led to a road victory for the Bruins volleyball team on Friday night as the team swept Kentucky Christian University 3-0. With the win, the Bruins improve to 13-1 on the season.
The Bruins came into the match on the heels of a 3-0 sweep of Greensboro College on Thursday night at home. With four matches in three days, the team knew they were in for a tough battle on Friday against the Knights. KCU was the runner-up in last year's NCCAA DII National Championship game. The home crowd was out in full voice as both teams took the court.
In the opening set, the Knights rode the energy of the crowd as Kiahna Holmen made three kills for KCU to help build a 4-1 lead. Undaunted, the Bruins came back to tie the set thanks to a kill by Brooke Beaver making it 9-9. From there, the Knights maintained a slim lead as the set reached its halfway point. Then Lauren Mukenschnabl stepped to serve for the Bruins and provided a spark as the team went on an 8-1 run to regain the lead. Both teams committed serving errors and then Holmen ended the set for the Knights with an attack error as BJU took the opening set 25-19.
With momentum, the Bruins gained a quick lead in the second set as they capitalized on the Knights errors. KCU was able to claw back into the set with a 4-0 run, but the Bruins maintained the lead 10-8. The two teams went back and forth as the score remained close. Courtney Bates had a big kill for the Bruins to make it 21-15 but the Knights weren't about to let the set slip away as closed the gap to trail 23-19. Brooke Beaver put an exclamation point to win the set as the sophomore powered home a kill to win the set 25-20. The Bruins led 2-0 looking to close out the match.
The Bruins had silenced the hometown crowd with their strong play defensively and offensively. Beaver picked up where she left off in set two with another kill as the Bruins built an early 6-2 lead. Despite several short runs by the Knights, the Bruins were able to come up with 65 digs in the match in what was a great defensive day for the team. Two kills by Jordan Anderson helped the Bruins take a 17-10 advantage. From there, the team never looked back as they went on to win the third set 25-16 and the match 3-0.
"We played incredible defense picking up several setter dumps and digging their best players," Bruins Head Coach Vickie Denny said. "Blockers showed up and stopped some key hitters up front too. Another great team effort with different people contributing at different times."
Brooke Beaver led the Bruins offensively with 13 kills in the match while Rachel Williams had 23 assists. Three different Bruins were in double figures in digs with Saleena Walker leading the way with 23. The Bruins also had 16 block assists in the game as the team improves to 13-1 on the season.
Next up, the Bruins will be back in action on Saturday with matches against Ohio Christian University (11 a.m.) and West Liberty University (1 p.m.) in Circleville, Ohio.
