WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Sept. 16, 2016) – No. 11 Central Missouri Jennies Volleyball opened up the Peggy Martin Crossover Challenge with a pair of sweeps over Great American Conference foes Henderson State and Arkansas Tech. The wins give the Jennies five straight wins and move them to 8-2 on the season.
Game One: Central Missouri 3, Henderson State 0 (25-20, 25-11,25-18)
The Jennies had three with double-digit kills led by
Cheyanne Lyons with 12.
Molly Lawrence and
Mackenzie Harding each had 10, a season-best for Harding.
Kourtney Thompson centered the Jens offense with 32 assists and
Katie Carlson led the defense with 13 digs.
UCM won both the service ace and blocks battles. The Jennies landed six aces, two coming from Lawrence, the first two of her career. Central Missouri's 10 blocks were also a season high and Lawrence helped out there as well, with a career-high seven.
The Jennies built a big lead to start the first set scoring seven of the first eight points. The Reddies stormed back though, and got to within two at 12-10. The set remained close with UCM still hanging on to a two-point lead, 19-17, before the Jennies outscored HSU 6-3, getting a block assist from Lyons and Lawrence to end the frame. Lyons had seven of her 12 kills in the set.
Set two was all Jennies after a close start. With the set tied up a seven-apiece, UCM went on an 11-2 run to take an 18-9 advantage and cruised to a 25-11 set win, scoring the final six points and ending on back-to-back kills from Harding.
The Jennies needed to come-from-behind to finish off the Reddies. Henderson State led by as much as five, 11-6 in the early going. After a kill from
Rylee Neigenfind tied the set at 14, the Jennies took their first lead on a Reddie attack error and never looked back, winning the set 25-18.
Henderson State hit only .081 for the match, committing 17 errors. Kamra Jackson's seven kills led HSU. Haley Higgins picked up 13 assists and Sydney Skelton had 11 digs.
Game Two: Central Missouri 3, Arkansas Tech 0 (25-20, 25-9, 25-21)
The Jennies offense was on full display against the Golden Suns. UCM hit .333 for the match with
Kylie Hohlen leading the Jens with 12 kills. Lyons added 11 and Harding chipped in nine. Thompson finished with her third double-double of the season and 27
th of her career as she led UCM with 32 assists and helped on defense with 12 digs.
The Jennies again put up a big number of blocks with nine, led by Harding and Thompson's four each. Carlson picked up a game-high 14 digs and two service aces.
Central Missouri led from the get-go in the opening frame, though Arkansas Tech remained close throughout. With a five-point lead, 18-13, the Golden Suns rattled off three straight points to get back to within two, 18-16. A pair of kills from Hohlen helped extend the Jens lead back to five, 22-17. They ended the set, 25-20 on Neigenfind's first kill of the match.
Just like their match against the Reddies, the Jennies stormed out to a commanding lead in the second set, forcing an early ATU timeout at 9-3. The Jennies were in cruise control from there, hitting .531 for the set and putting away the Golden Suns, 25-9.
Arkansas Tech tried getting back into the match, jumping out to a 10-6 lead in the third set. Central Missouri came all the way back with a 6-0 run to regain the lead, getting two kills from Hohlen and three ATU attack errors. The Golden Suns never led again and a Harding kill ended the match.
Eshnaur Hunter's eight kills led Arkansas Tech, who like the Reddies hit under .100 for the match at .074. Hunter also finished with 10 digs. Amanda Milnick nearly had a triple double with 12 digs, 11 assists and seven kills.
The Jennies play two more matches tomorrow to wrap up the Peggy Martin Crossover Challenge. UCM will take on Southern Arkansas at 1 p.m. and Newman at 5 p.m.
