Jennies Volleyball Completes 4-0 Opening Weekend

DURANT, Okla. (Sept. 2, 2017) - No. 21 ranked Central Missouri Volleyball has started out 2017 as well as they could have hoped with four 3-0 sweeps at the South Central Classic. Saturday afternoon the Jennies defeated Southern Arkansas and Southern Nazarene to finish off the weekend.

Game One: Central Missouri 3, Southern Arkansas 0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-12)
The first game of the day was all Jennies, as they gave up just 40 total points in a three-set sweep. The Jennies hit .475 as a team. That is their highest in a single match since hitting .519 against Southwestern Oklahoma State in October of 2010. It was Kasey Hohlen who again did most of the damage. She put up 14 kills on 19 attacks. Aubree Bell added nine kills on 14 attempts and Audrey Fisher chipped in with seven on 11 attacks.
 
Ally Offerdahl centered the offense with 35 assists and Kylie Hohlen was the defensive leader with 14 digs.
 
The Jennies scored 10 of the game's first 12 points, racing out to a 10-2 lead in set one and were able to cruise from there. Their lead was never in any danger as they took the first frame 25-16. Hohlen landed six of her 14 kills in the set on just seven attempts.
 
Southern Nazarene held a 3-1 lead at the outset. Then the Jennies scored 11 straight points and never looked back. Of the 11 points, nine were kills and one was a service ace as the Jennies displayed their dominance. Hohlen again had six kills and Bell and Molly Lawrence finished with four. Offerdahl passed out 17 assists.
 
Set three played out just like the second. UCM led by just one, 6-5, but went on a 10-1 run to open up a 16-6 lead and put the match away. Cassidy Loberg and Tyler Downs recorded kills before Bell finished off SAU with a service ace.  

Alexia Southern led SAU with five kills. Whitney Brown had the defensive lead with 13 digs.

Game Two: Central Missouri 3, Southern Nazarene 0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-13)

Hohlen made it 4-for-4 with double-digit kill performances over the weekend as she smacked 11 in the weekend finale and picked up a season-high seven blocks. In four games, Hohlen landed 52 kills with a .636 attack percentage. Fisher helped out Hohlen in the middle with eight kills as the senior-freshman dynamic duo combined for exactly half, 19 of the Jennies 38 kills in the match.

Offerdahl recorded her first career double-double with a game-high 21 kills and 10 digs. Kylie Hohlen again led the Jennies defense with 13 digs of her own. 

The two teams went back-and-forth at the start of the game and the Crimson Storm even scored four straight to tie the opening set at 11-all. After UCM regained the lead thanks to kills from Carly Offerdahl and Hannah VanBuskirk, the Jens never trailed again scored the final five points and closed on a 14-5 run. Kasey Hohlen had four kills and four blocks in the frame. 

Set two was another tight one. Three straight SNU attack errors helped UCM open up a 6-3 lead in the early going, but the Crimson Storm didn't give in. Even after two more SNU attack errors put the Jens up five, 16-11, Southern Nazarene got to within one with four straight points. But SNU couldn't get out of their own way with a ball handling error and attack error putting the Jens back up three and they won by five, 25-20. Twelve errors led to points for UCM and gave the Jens a 2-0 lead.

SNU had a 10-9 lead at the beginning of the third set. They only scored three more points after that as the Jennies ran away with a 25-13 set win. The Jens had two 4-0 runs and one of 5-0 to end the match, including scoring the last four points on SNU attack errors. 

Meagan Ellis led SNU with 10 kills. Kylie Smith had 11 assists and Elye Berlin recorded 15 digs. Bailee Turang landed four service aces as well for the Crimson Storm. 
 
The Jennies will play another four matches next weekend in Denver, Colo. They travel to the Colorado Premier Challenge to take on Tarleton State and Regis on day one. Their day two opponents will be determined by their performance on day one. First match scheduled for Friday, Sept. 8 at noon.