GEORGETOWN, TEXAS - Southwestern Volleyball came into the match on Wednesday against the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs needing to put a win in the record column after dropping the last three games to conference opponents.
The energy was palpable in the Robertson Center as the teams entered a "feeling out" period early in the first set, exchanging points early and often, and eventually, the match would go to 26 points falling in favor of Southwestern.
"You could feel us raise our competitive spirit throughout the entire match," recalls Coach Don Flora.
The energy shifted in the second match as Texas Lutheran came out of the break ready to compete. Both teams exchanged runs of long points in the second set and it was ultimately Texas Lutheran that pulled out an eight-point run to end the match 25-19, only interrupted by one point for Southwestern.
Grabbing momentum was key for the Pirates in set 3. Southwestern went on a long eight-point run in the middle of the match to take a 10-18 lead. Gaining that big lead was crucial for the Pirates as they withstood another run from the Bulldogs. As the momentum shifted again in favor of Southwestern, the Pirates rode the wave to a 25-17 victory.
In the final set, it was all Southwestern through and through, barely allowing the Bulldogs to get to double-digit points with the Pirates taking a dominant 25-10 fourth set win. Christina Kuras led the way for the Pirates with a game-high 18 kills on the night followed by Carly Berkman who had 13 kills and went 33 percent hitting. Andie Valenzuela was also in double digits in kills while hitting .364. With 62 total kills on the night, everyone got in on the action in a team-win for Southwestern.
"Having our first touches, the serving and passing being clean and intentional all match really helped us in crunch time early on. It was huge to out-defend against the SCAC-leading TLU team. And we had solid balance offensively, which made us hard to defend tonight." recaps Coach Flora.
The Pirates will have a one-off, non-conference contest at East Texas Baptist University on Friday, October 20th at 6:00 PM.
