VB2K21: The Recap 4

Oct. 2

Ohio State 3, Maryland 0

After a blazing 10-0 start, Ohio State slipped in two straight Big Ten road matchups against Purdue and Penn State. The Buckeyes got back on track at home with a 3-0 win over Indiana, Sept. 29, before hosting Maryland with the same result 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-19). The eighth ranked Buckeyes were led by freshman Arica Davis who had a .538 hitting percentage knocking down eight kills on just 13 attempts. She also had two kills. “I’m feeling very positive," Davis said. We had a complete switch in the gym from our last game and we went into this game wanting to play loose and free – the Buckeye way. I think we did a good job of that. We relied on each other and fed off of each other’s energy. It felt good walking into the gym and it felt good walking out of the gym. We had a really fun time tonight.”

Rylee Rader also bruised Maryland while hitting .476 with 10 kills for Ohio State. The usual productive suspects, Gabby Gonzales and Mia Grunze led Ohio State in kills with 12 and 11 respectively. Maryland's Laila Ricks and Sam Csire shared the team lead with nine kills.

North Carolina A&T 3, Radford 1

North Carolina A&T improved to 10-6 in a road victory over Radford, 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-18). Radford (2-14) hung tough the first two sets but a dominating third stanza vaulted the Aggies towards the win. North Carolina A&T hit .228 the entire match but in the third set it hit .361 compared to Radford's .079. The Aggies' Naiya Sawtelle racked up 18 kills, 17 digs and three blocks as she was the most productive player on the court. Fatimah Shabazz also had 10 kills to go along with four blocks. Radford's Kennedi Johnson led her team with 10 kills. Shelby Hernandez had a match high 20 digs in the losing effort.

Oct. 3

Cincinnati 3, SMU 1

After a four-match win streak, SMU (7-7) dropped a hard fought four-set match to host Cincinnati 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 24-26, 26-24). In front of 500 fans, Cincinnati improved to 8-4 as Maria Mallon posted a double-double with 15 kills and 14 digs. Shannon Williams matched Mallon with 15 kills while hitting a team best .344. Emme Madden also had a double-double for the Bearcats tallying 48 assists and 11 digs.

SMU got a strong performance from Kaylyn Winkler, who posted 10 kills on a hitting percentage of .625. She also posted five blocks, four of which were assisted. In fact SMU stayed in the match by dominating at the net posting 22 assisted blocks and two solo blocks compared to Cincinnati's three solo and four assisted. SMU's Alex Glover had a game high seven assisted blocks to go along with seven kills and three digs.

Texas A&M 3, Tennessee 2

After being swept by host Tennessee on Oct. 2, Texas A&M got some revenge the next day with a 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 17-25, 25-21, 17-15) win over the 20th ranked team in the NCAA. While facing elimination in the fourth set, Texas A&M hit a game best .366 while collecting 18 kills on just three errors. In the fifth and deciding set, Texas A&M out hit Tennessee .227 to .048. Camille Conner performed strong for Texas A&M with 45 assists, 14 digs, nine kills and five blocks with a .421 hitting percentage. Texas A&M's leader in kills was Morgan Christon who had 20 kills while hitting .364. Tennessee setter Natalie Hayward had 49 assists and 20 digs. Danielle Mahaffey led the Vols with 14 kills on a .429 hitting percentage.