DeKalb, Ill. – The Lindenwood women's volleyball team (3-1) earned a decisive 3-0 win over Portland State (1-3) in their opening match of the NIU Invitational on Friday afternoon. The Lions hit over .300 as a team for the first time since October 17th of last season.
Lindenwood trailed 21-20 in the opening set but finished the frame with five consecutive points to take a 25-21 win.
Susanna Beretti,
Ashley Geluck, and
Kylee Richey each recorded four kills to lead the Lions.
LU led by as many as eight points in the second set, but after the Lions took an 18-10 lead, the Vikings put together an 8-2 run to cut their deficit to just a pair. However, following timeout, Lindenwood scored five of the next seven points to win the set 25-20.
Lauren Ortwerth posted eight kills in the frame after a quiet opening set.
Lindenwood led for the entirety of set three to secure a 25-18 win and complete the sweep. The Lions hit .371 in the frame while limiting Portland State to a hitting percentage of .167.
Ashley Geluck led LU with six terminations in the set.
Geluck finished the afternoon as Lindenwood's scoring leader, registering 14.5 points on 13 kills and three block assists. She was followed by
Susanna Beretti, who was also in double digit kills with 11 terminations while adding one block.
Kaci Johnson had another strong outing with 30 assists, averaging 10 helpers per set and setting up the Lions for a .303 team hitting percentage.
Defensively,
Dana Grib led Lindenwood with 13 digs (4.33 DPS) while
Kylee Richey matched Geluck for the team lead in blocks with three rejections, including one solo effort.
Quotable
"We started off a little slow, but what I really like is that we didn't panic, settled, and just started playing some good volleyball", said Lindenwood head coach
Will Condon. "Going into the match it didn't look like Portland State had too many weaknesses and I don't think they played badly. I just think point by point we were able to make more plays."
Next Up
Lindenwood plays a doubleheader on Saturday, facing Murray State at 11:00 a.m. before the weekend finale at 6:00 p.m. against Northern Illinois.
