QUINCY, Ill. - The Truman volleyball team won a second-straight match for the first time this season and did so when it mattered most, in Great Lakes Valley Conference play. The Bulldogs defeated the Hawks in four sets on Tuesday night in Quincy's Pepsi Arena.
Truman now sits at 5-11 overall and moved back above the .500 mark within the GLVC thanks to a record of 4-3. On the other side, Quincy fell to 9-7 on the season and 4-3 in league action.
Bailey O'Drobinak led the team in kills with 12, reached double-figures for the first time in over a month (11 matches) and did so while hitting a red-hot .308. The senior has hit at least .300 in three of the last five matches.
Aiding the attack was
Savvy Hughes who continued her hot play with 39 assists and has had at least 39 helpers in three of the past five matches as well. Hughes also registered her sixth double-double of 2016 as she added 12 digs. The squads other leaders included
Jocelynn Livingston (career high four service aces),
Lacey Hill (four blocks) and
Kayla Bastian (26 digs).
The team set a new season high in aces with 10, but the Bulldogs had one of their best matches of the season, defensively, as well. On that side of the ball, Truman had five players with at least 10 digs for just the second time all season and Quincy hit just .109, the lowest number a Purple and White opponent has turned in all year.
In the first set, the visitors were up 4-0 to start before the Hawks rattled off 10 of the next 11 points to go up 10-5. The Bulldogs returned the favor, though, by going on an 18-5 run and were back in the lead, 23-15. From that point on, the closest the home team could get was five points, 24-19, but Truman sealed a 1-0 match lead with the following point. That set, the away team turned in the best offensive effort for either team the entire night at .275 with 15 kills and four errors on 40 total attacks.
The second set saw much of the same as there were only three ties and not a single lead change in that one. Both teams played to ties of 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3, but it was all Bulldogs after that as they led by as many as six including 18-12, 19-13 and 25-19. The hosts salvaged the third set, but Truman wasn't about to let it get to five.
In a fourth set that saw 10 deadlocks and five lead changes, the Bulldogs lead grew to as many as four in the early going (8-4, 9-5 and 11-7). However, the set then saw nine of those 10 ties, the final one being 22-22 before Truman scored the final three points to win the set and the match, 3-1.
Next up, the Bulldogs will be at Maryville on Friday at 7 p.m. and Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday at 3 p.m.
