Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
12-9 (6-3OVC)
Tennessee Tech
9-14 (3-6OVC)
Racers Breeze Past Tennessee Tech for Sixth-Straight Win
10/19/2018 9:25:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Riding a five-match winning streak, the Murray State volleyball team returned home, Friday evening against Tennessee Tech and easily took care of the Golden Eagles in three sets, 25-15, 25-15, 25-8.
In their most dominating win of the season, the Racers hit .324 and had four players hit over .300, while holding TTU to a .024 hitting percentage. Murray State had 44 kills compared to just 23 for the Golden Eagles and also out-aced TTU, 5-1.
Murray State now sits at 12-9 overall and 6-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference while TTU falls to 9-14 and 3-6 in the OVC.
Senior Dacia Brown led MSU with 14 kills and hit .333 while junior Rachel Giustino hit .417 with 12 kills to pull to within seven of 1,000 for her career. Fellow junior Megan Lindsay had contribute eight kills on just 11 attacks to hit .727, tied for seventh-highest in Racer history in a single match with at least ten attacks.
Sophomore Ashley McBee dished out 34 assists and also had 13 digs for her third double-double of the season. Classmate Becca Fernandez was stellar on defense with 17 digs while fellow sophomore Katirah Johnson led the Racers with three blocks.
In the first set, Murray State jumped out to a 6-1, but TTU fought back to take a 13-12 lead. However, a 9-0 run by the Racers, culminating in a kill by junior Rachel Holthaus, put the Racers in comfortable position to take the set, which they did on a kill by Giustino.
The Golden Eagles took an early 6-3 lead in the second set, but a kill by Holthaus jumpstarted a 6-1 run for the Racers to give them a lead, of which they would not give up. A 6-0 run later in the set helped extend the Murray State lead to 19-10, leading to a 25-15 set two win.
The third set was all Racers as they used an early 9-0 run to take a 13-4 lead. After some back-and-forth play in the middle of the set, MSU ended the set on a 6-0 run to take the third set, 25-8, and the match. In the set, Murray State hit .577, led by Brown and Lindsay, who both hit .750, and Giustino, who hit .667 and had a set-high six kills.
The Racers are back in action tomorrow afternoon at Racer Arena when they battle Jacksonville State at 2 p.m.
