SHERMAN, Texas – The Southwestern University Pirates volleyball team continued its late tear through conference, picking up its fourth consecutive victory with a three-set win over Centenary College.
Southwestern started the match on fire, executing with almost flawless precision in the first set with 19 kills on 30 attacks with no errors for a blistering .633 hitting percentage.
The Pirates began the match on an 11-1 run with freshmen Lauren Crabtree and Ashley Whitlock picking up four of Southwestern's first five kills and Whitlock sparked the final push with three consecutive kills for points 19-21.
Southwestern committed seven attack errors in the second set but played stifling defense, limiting Centenary to just six kills in the set while getting three service aces from conference leader Jamison Duck as part of a 10-0 run to give the Pirates an 11-2 lead. Ali Grona closed the set out with two aces in the Pirates' final three points.
Centenary found its footing some in the third and final set, scoring double digits in kills for the first time with 15 on 42 attacks with six errors for a .214 hitting percentage. Southwestern countered with 16 kills on 41 attacks with five errors for a .268 hitting percentage; taking advantage of a service error, kill by Haven Cathey, and a Centenary attack error to end the match.
Alyssa Dooley led the Pirates in kills with 16 on 32 attacks and three errors for an efficient .406 hitting percentage. Crabtree had 10 kills on 21 attacks with three errors for a .333 hitting percentage and Whitlock, doing much of her damage in the first set, had seven kills on 12 attacks with two errors for a .417 hitting percentage.
Brandi Campos led the team with 14 digs, Makenzie Mendez had 38 assists and 11 digs, and Duck had a solid all-around game with seven kills, eight digs, and three aces.
Alyssa Davis led Centenary with nine digs.
With the win, the Pirates improve to 13-10 on the season and 9-3 in conference. It plays a second match in Sherman against Austin College and hits the road next weekend for matches against Schreiner and Texas Lutheran in Shreveport, Louisiana.
