Box Score Behind tournament Most Valuable Player Val Jeffery, the
Youngstown State volleyball team hit .416 to complete a perfect
weekend at the Belmont Invitational.
After sweeping Evansville on Friday, the Penguins followed
Saturday morning's sweep of Belmont with a 3-0 win over Kennesaw
State. The scores were 25-18, 25-23, 25-13.
Jeffery finished with 37 assists and averaged 11.11 assists at
the tournament. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Lexi Egler
and Aly
Ryan.
Egler had a match-best 14 kills and 10 digs, and Shannon
Watson had 10 kills. Ryan was part of seven of YSU's 12
blocks.
"Our offense was really on track this afternoon," YSU head coach
Mark Hardaway said. "Kennesaw State is so athletic that I wasn't
sure if we could win at the net, and we really did a great job
hitting and blocking. Except for our serving, we played really
well. I'm so proud that this team survived every push by all three
opponents and got three sweeps."
Anaiah Boyer had six kills to lead Kennesaw State.
The Penguins trailed only once the entire match, and it came
early in the first set. The Owls jumped out to a 6-2 lead, and
YSU's first advantage didn't come until an attack error by KSU's
Megan McGuinness made the score 12-11. A kill by Watson capped a
9-2 run that put the Penguins up 16-12, and YSU led by at least
three the rest of the way.
Kennesaw State made a late charge in the second set to give YSU
its closest set of the weekend at 25-23, but it was all Penguins in
the third set. Youngstown State scored 12 of the first 13 points of
the set, with nine of those points coming on Lauren Blanco's
serve.
Youngstown State will play four matches in Pittsburgh next
weekend at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational.