LAKE CHARLES, La. (9/7/12) – The Arkansas State volleyball team
went 1-1 after the first day of competition at McNeese State Big Daddy's
Invitational on Friday. The Red Wolves opened the day with a 20-25, 25-23,
25-18, 25-23 loss to Baylor, but bounced back in its second match to defeat
Hampton 25-19, 25-19, 25-23.
Against Hampton the Red Wolves'(5-5) benefited from a strong
attacking game and finished with a .311 attacking percentage. Junior Kelsey
Sullivan led the team with 13 kills and a .455 hitting percentage, while
Jasmine Terry and Kelsie Hodges each had 10 kills.
Sullivan paced the Red Wolves from the start with five kills in
the first set as the Red Wolves cruised a 25-19 victory. ASU led 20-10 in the
second set, but Hampton closed the gap to 20-17. ASU pushed the lead to 23-19
and Taylor Coughing gave ASU a set point opportunity with a kill, which the Red
Wolves converted on when Hampton was charged with a ball handling error on set
point.
In the third set ASU rallied from a 15-10 deficit behind the play
of Terry and Hodges. Hodges helped tie the score at 19-19 with a kill and Terry
gave ASU its first lead since early in the set with a kills for a 23-22 edge.
Hampton tied the score on the next point, but Terry connected on a kill to
setup a match point, which ASU won when Hampton committed an attacking error.
“We had a really good attack against Hampton and we did a really
good of just competing against Hampton,” ASU volleyball coach David Rehr said. “We
are in a state right now where we are doing a lot of right things we just need
to learn how to finish out matches.”
Against Baylor, the Red Wolves opened with a 25-20 victory, but
the Bears rallied to win the next three sets and take the match.
Tipps and Terry led the Red Wolves with 11 kills, while Sullivan
10 finished with kills. Allison Kearney led the team with 35 assists and
finished the day with 71. Megan Baska finished with 18 kills in the match,
while Coughlin added 13 and Shelby Crncic collected 12.
ASU will conclude play at the tournament on Saturday with matches
against Bethune-Cookman and McNeese State.
