Blue Raiders break Hilltoppers' 14-match winning streak– Volleyball News
The middle Tennessee girls were on top of the world after their sensational performance against Western Kentucky volleyball team Kentucky on Tuesday, October 4. The two teams staged a head-to-head battle at the E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
The guest team proved to be better and pulled off success in four sets (24-26, 25-19, 25-22, 25-16) and snapped their opponets winning streak.
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders bagged their fourth consecutive win and moved to overall record of 6-9 in the 2011 season. Moreover, they marked 7th straight win over archrivals Western Kentucky and broke their winning streak of fourteen matches.
Alyssa Wistrick grabbed a lot attention on centre court as she put together an outstanding performance. She recorded a career-best and match-high 19 kills and enabled her team to outdo the resilient rival. Maria Szivos of Blue Raiders contributed 14 kills
and remained second on top-scorers’ list, while Ashley Adams and Oyinlola Oladinni followed up with 10 and 9 kills, respectively. On the whole, Middle Tennessee accumulated 56 kills to Hilltoppers’ 50.
Equipped with the stupendous support of home fans, the Hilltopper got off to a good start in the match. They controlled the action on the net and delivered wonder jump-serves. They put away the early scores in first set and picked up lead over the opponent.
On the other side of the net, Blue Raiders started off slow but showed consistency in attack and defence. Hilltoppers were ahead of Blue Raiders at 17-14 but soon the gap of points was shortened to 18-17 as visiting team put in a lot of effort. However, Western
Kentucky did not allow them to come up and secured opening set of the game, 26-24.
After dropping the opening set with narrow gap of two points, Blue Raiders put up extra effort and pushed the hosts behind. They tied the game score by winning second set (25-19) and further crushed the chances of Hilltoppers with consecutive victories in
3rd and 4th set, 25-22, 25-16.
"I think our team came into tonight realizing that this was a must-win for us. In order for us to make the NCAA Tournament again this year, these are the kinds of matches that we need to win. Taking on Western Kentucky is a huge opportunity for us, and I
think we played really well tonight. I'm really happy to come out of here with a 3-1 win." Said head coach Matt Peck said.
Wistrick of Blue Raider topped all the scorers but still expressed the wish to do more in the match. She stated: "I think I could've done better. They're our rivals, so we always want to do well when we play them. I feel that I could have hit better, but
it’s great to get a career-high against them. We still have worked to do though."
Blue Raiders will return to action against South Alabama and Troy this coming Friday and Saturday. The Raiders enjoy a great form and seem totally determined to extend their winning streak in the next matches.
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