Huskies split Friday at Crossover

HAMMOND, Ind. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team split day one at the Midwest Region Crossover Tournament Friday. The Huskies fell 3-0 to Ashland in the afternoon match and then won their 13th match of the season with a 3-2 victory over Indianapolis in the evening.

"What a great way to end a very long day of volleyball," Tech Coach Matt Jennings said. "While this afternoon's match was a tough one against a red-hot Ashland team, tonight's against Indy was a really great battle, and I'm proud of the way we hung in there and finished. A well-played and hard-fought five-set win to close out was great to see. I was thrilled to see the toughness out there and really liked the way we responded when Indy was pushing us into a fifth set. To come out and take command early in the final set was impressive.

"We got a lot of great stuff from our freshmen outsides in both matches, a really great step forward for those two. They took a ton of swings for us today, scoring at a very high clip. Grace and Carissa were excellent all day as well and led the backcourt with quality passing and tough defense in both of these. Grace's serving was incredible tonight, she led what was a really solid team serving night for us. The serve pass game was a strong point in the win.

"Ashland is a really good team this year, credit to coach Kevin and the Eagles. They are experienced, aggressive, and make very few errors. We had our moments but had a hard time responding at times when Ashland was crisp. Meg was particularly good for us in this one, the first of two really nice performances for her."

Tech will wrap up the weekend against Cedarville at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The Yellowjackets fell to Ferris State (3-0) and Rockhurst (3-1) on Friday.

Ashland 3, Michigan Tech 0

Ashland stayed hot, winning its 15th straight match in the 3 p.m. meeting with the Huskies. The Eagles won 25-19, 25-21, and 25-14,

The Eagles used an early 6-1 run in the first to take a four-point margin that they extended to seven. They hit .282 and limited the Huskies to .057. There were 11 ties and five lead changes in the second. Ashland took a 2-0 lead after scoring the final five points. Meg Raabe had five kills in the second. The Eagles took control late in the third, scoring six of the final eight points to earn the sweep. Makena Wesol had four kills for the Huskies in the third.

Meg Raabe led the Black and Gold with 11 kills while hitting .435 and adding six digs. Makena Wesol (7), Jillian Kuizenga (5), and Kaycee Meiners (4) also had at least four kills each. Lina Espejo-Ramirez set the attack with 23 assists and Carissa Beyer registered 20 digs.

Michigan Tech 3, Indianapolis 2

Tech took the first two sets 25-23 and 25-18 before the Greyhounds tied it up 25-23 and 26-24. The Huskies won the fifth 15-12 to improve to 13-7 overall.

Both of the first two sets had eight ties and four lead changes. Meg Raabe had four kills in the first, including the final point. Tech built a 20-14 lead in the second and Raabe again ended it, finishing with five kills in the frame.

The third was tight throughout with neither team gaining more than a three-point lead in the second half of the set. Tied at 23, the Greyhounds got a kill by Sophia Parlanti and then a bad set by the Huskies. Raabe again led Tech with six kills. UIndy tied it in the fourth after an extended set. Tech held matchpoint before four straight points by the Greyhounds to get back into it. UIndy got a kill by Grace Hedgwood and a block by Elizabeth Eads and Alex Equihua to send it to a fifth. Makena Wesol tallied five kills in the fourth.

The teams battled through five ties early in the third. Knotted at 12, the Huskies took the win after a ball handling error by UIndy, a Brook Dzwik ace, and a kill by Meg Raabe. Carissa Beyer dug up seven balls in the fifth.

Meg Raabe racked up a season-high 22 kills while hitting .322. Makena Wesol had a season-high 17 kills, while Kaycee Meiners hit double figures for the first time this season, tying a career-high with 10 kills and adding seven blocks.

Lina Espejo-Ramirez set the offense with 57 assists and added nine digs. Carissa Beyer stabilized the defense with 33 digs, with her fourth 20-dig match in a row. Grace Novotny and Brooke Dizwik each added 15 digs.