COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Lindenwood women's volleyball (8-8, 4-1 OVC) picks up a 3-2 thrilling win against the Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech (5-11, 1-4 OVC) as the Lions post a season high 68 kills and 92 digs in the win. It also marks their first road victory of the season.
"Tech did a good job of limiting their errors and serving us tough," said head coach
Will Condon. "We were battling and playing hard but were making too many errors to win sets when your opponent is playing that well. We were able to find ways to win three sets which Tech made difficult with how they were playing. I think our defense kept us in the match and we were able to serve well enough to even that side of the game."
Addy McAleer led the way for the Lions after picking up 21 kills and 16 digs for her sixth double-double of the season (three straight). Freshman
Jade Roth came up big in the middle with a season high 19 kills on an efficient .567 hitting percentage.
The Golden Eagles jumped out to the early lead in the first set with a score of 21-25. Lindenwood trailed as much as six points towards the end of the match before Tech took the first.
Nyah Wilson and McAleer both had four kills to start Friday's match.
Lindenwood bounced back to even the match at 1-1 with a 25-23 set two win. After trailing 13-9 midway through the second, McAleer helped lead the charge to take the lead at 15-14 and never looked back. The Lions again added 15 kills to their total and had help with four services aces.
Libero
Jessie Seidel had two of the aces in the set while adding seven digs. Her 29 digs in the match was her second highest of the season and she was one of four Lions to post double digit digs on the defensive side.
Allie Otten also had 12 assists in the set.
LU was able to take a 2-1 advantage after the third set with a 25-22 win. The third saw 15 ties and eight lead changes before Lindenwood closed out the set with a kill by Özge Tan. Despite the back and forth set, both teams hit under .100 in the third. Roth added another four kills to her career night.
In what seemed destined for a fifth set, the Golden Eagles rallied down 2-1 to tie the match with a 23-25 set four victory. Lindenwood's offense still produced big numbers with their third set with at least 15 kills (.234 hitting percentage) but TTU's Madolyn Isringhausen's three services aces was the deciding factor in the fourth.
Lindenwood commanded the fifth set early jumping out to a 8-3 advantage. After both teams switched sides of the court, Tennessee Tech rallied back to take a 13-11 lead. After a
Rebecca Janke kill and a TTU attack error, Janke picked up the final kill to give Lindenwood the 16-14 fifth set win.
Wilson came up big for the Lions on both the offensive and defensive sides of the net. She notched her seventh double-double (fourth straight) and earned a season high 20 digs in the process. Janke was also active adding 12 kills and five blocks.
Otten also set a season high 54 assists in the five set win picking up her first match this season with over 50. She also earned a double-double adding 15 digs. Seidel and McAleer also added two aces each to help propel the Lions to their four OVC win of the season.
"Winning on the road is always tough. In order for us to keep making strides as a team we will need to find ways to win on the road, especially against teams like Tech who can hurt you in different ways," said Condon.
Lindenwood will continue their trip at Tennessee Tech tomorrow with their second match set for a 2:00 p.m. start time. For more information go to lindenwoodlions.com.
