Volleyball Splits Saturday at Crossover Tournament

AURORA, Ill. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team split a pair of matches at the Midwest Regional Crossover Saturday (Oct. 15). The Huskies won 3-2 over Quincy in their early match and fell 3-0 to Rockhurst to wrap up the tournament.

"We played well in both matches today and finished the tournament on a good note," Tech coach Matt Jennings said. "This morning's match was a balanced team effort. Winning a five-setter certainly felt good, particularly given how well we played in the fifth set.

"I thought we played very well for most of the final two sets against Rockhurst. They might have been the best team in the tournament, and we were playing at a very high level right there with them.

"Aubrey and Rachel were outstanding for us in all three matches and should be proud of the way they played in their final cCrossover. Elle had one of the best weekends of her career and really stepped up for us both defensively and in serve receive."

Michigan Tech 3, Quincy 2

The Huskies won the first two sets (25-19, 25-17) before the Hawks knotted it up (25-16, 25-22). Tech, playing in its sixth five-set match of the season, wrapped it up with a 15-9 win for the victory.

"Our offense was impressive against Quincy," added Jennings. "It was nice to see our middles get back to form as I thought Stephanie and Lauren were excellent on the attack. Rachel did a great job getting them involved."

The Black and Gold hit .261 and were led offensively by Aubrey Ficek (17 kills ), Stephanie Dietrich (13 kills) and MacAulay Peterson (12 kills). Ficek (12) and Peterson (13) joined Elle Heinonen (25), Rachel Pohlod (12), and Halie Hart (11) with double digit digs as the Huskies totaled 79, the third most this season. Pohlod was one assist short of a career high with 58.

Rockhurst 3, Michigan Tech 0

Rockhurst won with scores 25-16, 27-25, and 25-22.

"Rockhurst is one of the most disciplined teams we've seen all year and played excellent defense all match long," Jennings said. "We really made them work for it and in reality, were just a few untimely errors away from winning the last two sets. Lauren put on a blocking clinic, once again proving why she is one the best middles in our region."

Ficek (10 kills) and Peterson (9 kills) led Tech's offense while Pohlod added 30 assists. Heinonen (18 digs) and Pohlod (14 digs) led the defense. Lauren Emmert had four solo blocks and a block assist.

"We feel good about today and hope to use the momentum this week in practice as we prepare for the second half of GLIAC play," said Jennings. "It's hard to believe that we have only played two of our 21 matches at home, and we're excited to play seven of our final nine matches at the SDC.

"The conference is up for grabs and we're in a solid position to advance. We have to clean up a few things in practice and then get after it at game time."

The Huskies host Lake Erie and Ohio Dominican this weekend (Oct. 21-22) at the SDC Gym. Friday's match against the Storm is at 7 p.m. with a 3 p.m. match against the Panthers Saturday.