Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
17-9, 11-3OVC
Morehead State
18-9, 9-5OVC
Racers Extend Winning Streak to 11 With Five-Set Win at Morehead State
11/3/2018 6:46:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
It took five sets, but the Murray State volleyball team extended their winning streak to 11 with a road win at Morehead State, Saturday afternoon. After taking the first two sets, 27-25, 25-13, the dropped the following two sets, 23-25, 19-25, but came back to win the fifth set, 15-11.
With the win, Murray State improves to 17-9 and 11-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference and clinched a top-two seed in the OVC tournament, but still remain one match behind Austin Peay with two matches to go. Morehead State falls to 18-9 and 9-5 in the OVC.
It is the first win in Morehead for the Racers since a five-set win in 2008.
Senior Dacia Brown led the Racers with 17 kills while hitting .390. Sophomore Katirah Johnson hit a game-high .579 with 13 kills while junior Rachel Holthaus hit .444 with nine kills.
Sophomore Becca Fernandez had 22 digs and junior Rachel Giustino recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 14 digs. Sophomore Ashley McBee dished out 52 assists and Johnson contributed a team-high five blocks.
The Eagles took an early 9-5 lead in the first set, but Murray state responded with a 5-1 run to tie the set at 10. After some back-and-forth, the Racers won four straight points to take a 20-17 lead, but the Eagles responded to get to set point at 24-23. After Murray State saved one set point, they saved another set point to tie it at 25 before Giustino and redshirt-freshman Kolby McClelland teamed up for two straight blocks to win the set.
The second set was tightly contested early until the Racers won three straight points to take a 14-11 lead. After the Eagles won the next point, Murray State ended the set with an 11-1, culminating with a block by Johnson and Brown, to go up two sets to one.
Morehead State took control early in the third set and built a 20-14 lead. However, the Racers clawed their way back to tie the set at 23, but the Eagles won the next two points to take the set.
The fourth set was all Morehead State as they took a lead early and never looked back, eventually taking the set, 25-19.
Murray State jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the Eagles came right back with three straight points of their own to tie it right back up. A block by Giustino and Holthaus gave the Racers an 8-5 lead as the teams switched sides. Morehead State got back to within one at 11-10, but the Racers won four of the last five points to win the deciding set and take the match.
The Racers are back in action next weekend for the final two matches of the season when they travel to take on Eastern Illinois, Friday at 7 p.m. before battling SIU Edwardsville in the season finale, Saturday at 2 p.m.
