Sophomore outside hitter Courtney Smith led three players in double digit kills with 13, and senior libero Leslie Schellhaas compiled 18 digs, to guide the Morehead State volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 32-30) win over Tennessee State Friday (November 8) at MSU’sWetherby Gym. The win secures at least a share of MSU's fourth straight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship.
MSU (22-6/13-0 OVC) extended the nation's best conference regular-season winning streak to 35 matches and is now 65-2 in the league in the last four seasons. A win over Belmont Saturday would secure the title outright and give MSU the opportunity to host the OVC Tournament for the fourth consecutive season as well. The Tigers dipped to 10-14 overall and 6-7 in the conference.
Smith only committed two attack errors on 22 attempts for a .500 hitting percentage. As a team, the Eagles recorded a .302 attack efficiency and has now hit .358 in the last two matches.
Senior outside hitter ArynBohannon landed 12 kills, and junior right-side hitter Alex Fitzmorris contributed 10 winners. Sophomore Hannah Sigala had a hand in five of MSU's seven team blocks, while junior setter Colbey Cameron dished out 41 assists and had eight digs. Senior defensive specialist Lindsey Roth served up four aces.
Schellhaas upped her career dig total to 2,069. She needs only 14 more to move into second place on MSU's career chart. Tennessee State's Sherryce Butler led her team with 13 kills via a .417 attack percentage. The rest of the TSU lineup was held to 22 kills with 14 errors. The Tigers hit .180 for the night.
Tennessee State had several opportunities to send the match to at least four sets. The Tigers led 23-21 and 24-22 in the third. Both teams had three set-point opportunities thwarted. TSU led 29-28 but a block error on the visitors and a service error, along with a pair of Eagle kills, lifted MSU to the comeback win.
Morehead State will battle Belmont on Saturday (November 9) at 5 p.m., following MSU's home football game at 1 p.m.
