Volleyball sweeps SVSU Friday for fifth straight win Play Video
Posted: Sep 27, 2019

Volleyball sweeps SVSU Friday for fifth straight win

HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team swept Saginaw Valley State 3-0 Friday (Sept. 27) at the SDC Gym, winning its fifth straight match and picking up the third straight sweep. The Huskies improved to 9-3 overall and 4-0 in the GLIAC.

"A 3-0 sweep against a good Saginaw team that beat Ferris last weekend is a good win," Tech coach Matt Jennings said. "That's a team that's going to beat a lot of good teams. They were tight sets tonight and that speaks to the toughness of our team. I'm really happy with the win."

Tech held a pair of five-point leads early in the first set before the Cardinals came back to tie it at 15. SVSU went on to take a 24-23 setpoint advantage. Rachel Ping tied it back up for the home team with a kill and a pair of attack errors by SVSU gave the Huskies the 1-0 win 26-24. MacAulay Petersen had four kills in the first frame.

The Black and Gold maintained a two-point lead for most of the second set. Petersen tallied five kills in the middle frame. She had a kill to put Tech up 23-20 and then blocked an attack on the next play for set point. Anna Jonynas finished it off with a kill for the 25-21 win and 2-0 lead.

There were 10 ties in the third set. Jonynas had a kill for a set and match point lead at 24-23. Hanna Tabit responded for the visitors to tie. Petersen added two more kills and an attack error on the Cardinals finished off the match, 27-25.

"MacAulay was fun to watch tonight," added Jennings. "She has a lot of power behind that swing. She had a set-saving tip kill in the third set. That's an experienced captain type of play. We're lucky to have her."

Petersen finished with a team-high 13 kills. She has recorded double-digit kills in five of the last six matches. She also had a match-high .348 hitting percentage.

Olivia Ghormley added 10 kills and seven digs. Jonynas finished with nine digs and eight kills.

Laura De Marchi set the offense with 36 assists while contributing eight digs. Megan Utlak led the team with 10 digs, and Emilia Widen had four blocks.

Tech wraps up its three-match home week against Lake Superior State Saturday. The Lakers won their first GLIAC match of the season Friday at Northern Michigan, 3-1.

"Lake State is a team that pushes us," Jennings said. "I think we're the better team if we play our game. Like every game in this league, we need to come out ready to play.

First serve is at 4 p.m.