Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 MONTGOMERY, Ala.—To kick off the Faulkner Invitational, the Fire volleyball team picked up a win in their early matchup before suffering defeat in a close competition to finish the day.
In their first match of the day, Southeastern easily handled Brenau University in three sets (25-14, 25-14, 25-13).
The Fire outplayed the Golden Tigers on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball for the entirety of the contest. Not only did Southeastern register a season-high .342 hitting percentage compared to the Golden Tigers' .072 hitting percentage, but they also recorded 46 digs to Brenau's 27 digs throughout the three sets.
Kiana Sawtelle led the Fire offensively with nine kills, while
Kelsey Morton and
Kaity Reed each added eight more. Senior
Amy Schermerhorn added five kills to go along with her .500 hitting percentage.
Setting looked to be vital to Southeastern's offensive attack as 38 out of 39 of Southeastern's kills were assisted.
Natalie Anderson assisted on 23 kills, while freshman
Courtney Krause tallied 11 helpers.
The Fire's depth proved advantageous as seven Fire players averaged over a .300 hitting percentage in the match and six members of the team had at least five digs.
Keniah Rivera Santiago and
Hannah Kaszubowski shared the team-high for digs in the first contest of the day with nine each. Sawtelle tallied seven digs and Reed contributed with six digs defensively.
The final match saw Southeastern battle Life University in a five-set thriller, but fall by a score of 3-2 (25-18, 11-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-12).
The Fire dropped the first set of the competition, but fought back in the second and third sets through a combination of steady offense and errors by the Running Eagles. Life committed 17 errors in those two sets, while only recording a mere ten kills, which allowed the Fire to take a 2-1 advantage in the match. Southeastern tallied 24 kills during that stretch.
Sawtelle and Krause once again played a major role in the Fire's offensive threat. The Stuart, Florida native killed 14 of her attack attempts and Krause recorded nine kills with an astounding .615 hitting percentage. The freshman also added ten assists.
Southeastern, who committed 15 of their 39 errors in the last two sets, saw themselves relinquish the lead and eventually the match in a tightly contested fifth set by a score of 15-12.
Defensively, four Fire players reached the double-digit mark in digs. Rivera Santiago dug a match-high 30 balls, whereas Sawtelle and Anderson tallied 18 and 16 digs, respectively.
For Life, Deandra King made an impression with her 16 kills, while Amber Harris, who handled the setting responsibilities for the Running Eagles, assisted on a total of 38 of the team's 43 kills.
In the end, the errors and lack of offense late in the match proved fatal for the Fire in their second competition of the day.
Tomorrow, Southeastern will be back in action as they take on the University of Mobile at 9am and Reinhardt University at 3pm in day two of the Faulkner Invitational.
