There were all treats, no tricks on Halloween night as the Radford volleyball team gets revenge sweeping Liberty (25-13, 25-20, 25-15) at the Vines Center.
Radford (21-3, 11-2 Big South) tallied a .292 hitting percentage as a team with six blocks, while holding Liberty (10-16, 7-6 Big South) to a .083 hitting percentage. The team also picked up six blocks, led by Amaya Rousseau and Mallory McKnight with three each.
The first set began with the Highlanders jumping out to a 7-2 lead. The run continued as Radford went up, 12-6. Liberty made a push and cut it to as low as seven, 15-8, but Radford stormed back taking a 22-12 lead. The Highlanders scored three of the next four points and won the first set by 12 points, 25-13. In the set, Radford hit .500 with a match-high 15 kills in the set.
Radford continued the run in the second set, which began similar to the first with the Highlanders taking a commanding 7-1 lead. However, in the second set the Flames went on a 13-7 run and tied the set at 14. A Stephanie Neast kill began a 5-1 path, which gave Radford a 19-15 lead. Liberty cut the lead to as low as two on two separate occasions, but a kill by Rousseau and Gonzalez, along with an attack error by Casey Goodwin ended the set, 25-20. The set win gave Radford a 2-0 advantage.
Liberty had a .000 hitting percentage only picking up nine kills along with nine attack errors. With the set tied at three, Radford began to pull away with a 9-2 run taking a 12-5 lead. Radford scored eight of the next 11 points en route to a 20-8 lead. Then it was Liberty’s turn to take a run with 7-2 run, 22-15. The Highlanders got two kills from Maddie Palmer and a block from Rousseau and Neast.
As a team the Highlanders hit .292 and tallied six blocks on the other side of the net. The defense picked up 47 digs and held the Flames to a .083 hitting percentage.
Kaylor Nash recorded another double-digit dig performance with 12, while Haley Kleespies picked up 11. Kleespies picked up a double-double leading all players with 36 assists and recording 11 digs. Maddie Palmer was two digs shy of a double-double, but led all players with 15 kills.
Mallory McKnight had eight kills and led all players with a .500 hitting percentage. Rousseau and McKnight tallied three blocks each.
“We played a solid all-around match tonight with contributions from everyone. We won the pass and serve game and that fueled our offense and helped out on defense.” ~ Marci Jenkins
The Highlanders return to the Dedmon Center for three straight matches wrapping up the season. with a 4 p.m., match today against Charleston Southern.
–VT Athletics