DAYTON, Tenn.—Following their pair of wins on Friday, the Fire volleyball team impressed once again by dismantling their competition in both matches on Saturday.
The Fire began their day with a 3-0 sweep of the University of Pikeville (25-21, 25-8, 25-20).
After surrendering the first six points of the contest, the Fire rallied to take a 17-16 lead behind the attack of
Kaity Reed,
Kiana Sawtelle and
Emily Boehlein, who each recorded four kills in the opening set. When Pikeville responded with a 4-0 run to gain a three-point advantage, Southeastern countered once again. Over the final stretch of the game, SEU won eight of the last nine points, thanks to kills by Boehlein and Reed, and a stretch of seven consecutive serves by
Hannah Kaszubowski, which featured an ace.
To say that Southeastern carried momentum into the second set would be an understatement. After giving up the first two rallies and evening the game at 5-5, SEU went on an astounding 20-3 run to close the frame.
The Fire registered a .370 hitting percentage with 14 kills in the set, 12 more than Pikeville. The second game was finished off by a series of six serves by Isabella LaVasseur, which included three of her four service aces on the day. Southeastern conceded a season-low eight points, as they went up 2-0 in the match.
Sawtelle, who finished with a match-high .423 hitting percentage, added seven of her career-best 16 kills in the final set, as the Fire looked to close out the match. The Stuart, Florida native contributed defensively with ten digs, to notch her third consecutive match with at least ten kills and ten digs.
Keniah Rivera Santiago dug a total of 15 attacks in the contest.
Southeastern took a 2-1 lead in the deciding set and didn't look back. Savanna Zakman tried to keep the Bears in the game with her team-leading six kills, eight assists, and nine digs, but Pikeville could only cut SEU's advantage to one.
The Fire's offensive attack was too strong for the Bears. Both
Courtney Krause (20) and
Natalie Anderson (16) assisted more kills than Pikeville assisted in the entire match (14). Southeastern out-hit Pikeville in every set, and more than doubled the Bears' kill count (46-20). Senior
Kelsey Morton recorded eight kills, five in the final set, with a .316 hitting percentage, while
Kaitlin Boyd added seven kills, as SEU took the set 25-20 and the match 3-0.
In their last competition at the Bryan Bash, Southeastern battled back after dropping the first set to beat Bethel University 3-1 (24-26, 25-17, 25-21, 25-19).
Errors and hitting percentage decided the fate of the teams in every set.
In a tightly contested first game, a few keys errors plagued Southeastern. Seven early mistakes allowed Bethel to open up a four point advantage, 11-7. Each time the Fire fought to even the score, the Wildcats answered by retaking momentum back. With the score tied at 24, SEU committed two errors to give Bethel a 1-0 lead in the match.
Southeastern responded in the second set. With the game even at 13 apiece, SEU went on an 8-2 run fueled by three of Boyd's career-high 12 kills. The senior from Lakeland registered a remarkable .600 hitting percentage on 20 attempts and did not make a single attack error in a match that featured 59 of them.
The Fire only tallied four errors in the frame, while killing 11 attack attempts, which allowed them to take the second set 25-17 and even the match at one.
A back-and-forth third set saw five lead changes. After the Wildcats took a 20-18 advantage, errors by Bethel combined with three consecutive kills by Reed helped Southeastern put together a 7-1 run and pull ahead toward the end of the game. Reed finished the contest with 12 kills to go with her career-high 18 digs. Rivera Santiago dug 21 attack attempts, once again leading the Fire in the dig category.
SEU won the first point of the fourth frame and didn't surrender the lead for the rest of the match. The Fire out-hit the Wildcats .206 to .024 in what turned out to be the deciding set. Yet another 8-2 run, which featured multiple kills by Morton, sealed the fate of the game. Southeastern triumphed 25-19 and 3-1 in the match, which improved their regular season record to 7-3 and completed a perfect 4-0 record at the Bryan Bash.
Volleyball will return to Lakeland for their home opener against Johnson University on September 5
th at 7 p.m.
