GEORGETOWN, Texas – Southwestern's impressive play on Saturday led to two SCAC wins as they defeated Schreiner 3-0 and Texas Lutheran 3-1.
Southwestern opened the day against Schreiner University and wasted no time exerting their dominance. The Pirates busted out to a four point lead and continued to pull further away to win the first set 25-15.
The Mountaineers fought back in the second set and had the Pirates down 9-8. Southwestern quickly regained the lead, however, and steadily pulled away to win the second set 25-17.
Kincannon served a huge 10-0 run to start the third set, giving the Pirates a large and comfortable lead. Schreiner never threatened the Pirates in the set and Southwestern easily closed it out 25-9 to win the match 3-0.
Southwestern held Schreiner to a .000 attack percentage in the final set and .052 for the match while hitting .352 as a team. Olivia Drummond led offensively with 10 kills and a monstrous .625 attack percentage. She also posted a game high three blocks. Kincannon and Nikki Welch had three aces each and Welch led with 21 assists. Andie Alford came off the bench to lead Southwestern in digs with nine.
In game two, TLU was hot early as they took an 8-2 lead on the Pirates to start the final match of the day. Southwestern was never able to fully recover from the deficit despite a late four point rally as they fell 25-17 in set one.
Southwestern fell behind once again in the second set, but battled through long rallies to even the count 11-11. The Pirates ran the momentum to the end of the set to win 25-19. The Pirates rolled through set three and out-hustled the Bulldogs to take a 2-1 lead with a 25-16 set three win.
The Pirates started the fourth set with all the confidence in the world, taking a 5-1 lead, but TLU slowly chipped away and posted an 8-0 run to steal the lead 9-7. It was a seesaw match the rest of the way and, with the game tied 23-23, Southwestern and TLU battled back and forth until SU finally took what belonged to them, winning 30-28.
TLU and Southwestern had 15 ties and six lead changes in the match with 10 ties and four lead changes in the fourth set alone. SU posted a .159 attack percentage, just slightly better than the Bulldogs' .100. Macey Pool and Kaitlyn Foster had 13 kills each to lead Southwestern while TLU's Kristin Fording led all attackers with 19 kills. Sydney Rochelle posted 42 assists. Three Pirates posted 20+ digs in the win, showing just how impressive SU was defensively. Foster had 29, Chandler Lentz 28 and Pool 26. Kirby Kincannon had four blocks and Rochelle added in three.
Southwestern improves to 9-6 on the year and 2-1 in SCAC action while TLU falls to 11-4 overall and 1-2 in conference play. The Pirates remain in conference action as they head to Shreveport, LA to face the University of Dallas, Colorado College, Austin College and Centenary next weekend.
