HUNTINGTON, WVa. – The App State volleyball team opened the penultimate week of regular season play with a sweep of Marshall in Huntington, WVa. on Thursday. Entering Friday's competition, App State (14-10, 5-8 SBC) and Marshall (14-12, 6-7 SBC) are matched with SBC East Division records of 4-7, with tomorrow's game deciding if the Mountaineers will qualify for the conference tournament.
App State 3, Marshall 0
Three Mountaineers made double-digit kills, led by senior
Ali Morris, who slammed down 14. Morris will enter Friday's match one kill shy of 1,000 career kills, which will be the second career milestone she will reach this fall. Fellow senior
Maya Winterhoff made 10 kills on a mark of .668 and made a solo block for the Black and Gold. Sophomore
Bella Hutchens also tallied 10 kills on the afternoon, while fellow sophomore
MeMe Davis led the team with 20 digs. Accounting for 36 of App State's 41 assists, redshirt senior
Addison Heidemann helped the team to a hitting percentage of .288. The Mountaineers totaled nine aces, four of which were served up by senior
Keionna Mackey, to Marshall's four. Sophomore
Lou Johnson led the Mountaineers with five blocks, followed by Mackey, who went up for four.
Early in the first set, App State and Marshall tied things up on seven occasions and traded the lead thrice before the Mountaineers established a 15-11 lead with a 5-0 run. The run included a pair of Hutchens kills, a block from the duo of Mackey and Johnson, and a Heidemann ace. The Mountaineers' momentum carried as App State surged ahead, 22-12, with a 7-0 run that featured a kill from Mackey, a solo block from Johnson, a Hutchens ace, and back-to-back blocks from the duo of Mackey and Johnson. Marshall chipped away at the deficit with a 3-0 run, but it wasn't enough as the Black and Gold capped the set, 25-25, after a kill from Johnson, a Herd error, and a kill from Winterhoff. At the close of the first set, Winterhoff boasted a perfect hitting percentage with four kills on four attempts.
Down 2-1 early in the second set, App State took a 4-2 lead with back-to-back kills from Morris and an ace from Davis. Breaking a 4-4 tie with a 6-0 run that featured a kill from Winterhoff and three consecutive aces as well as a kill from Mackey, App State commanded the lead for the remainder of the set. Marshall managed to catch up to the Mountaineers, cutting the deficit to 19-18 with a 5-0 run, but the Mountaineers answered with a kill from Winterhoff. Kills from Hutchens and Johnson pushed App State ahead, 23-19. Heidemann set Johnson up for a kill to bring the Black and Gold to set point before setting Morris up for a kill to secure the set, 25-21, for App State.
In a tight third set, the Mountaineers and Thundering Herd knotted the score 12 times and swapped the lead on six occasions. Marshall managed to take a 15-12 lead midway through the set, but the Mountaineers chipped away at the deficit with a trio of kills from Hutchens, as well as a kill from Winterhoff. As the Herd pushed ahead, 20-19, Hutchens knotted the score at 20 all. Marshall managed one more kill before the Mountaineers went on a late 5-0 surge with a pair of kills from Morris, a Marshall error, Winterhoff's solo block, and an ace from Davis. App State took the set, 25-21, to complete the sweep. Thursday's win snapped the Mountaineers' six-match drought, which had dated back to Oct. 17.
Looking Ahead
The Mountaineers will return to the court at 4 p.m. on Friday for their second match against Marshall. The match will be available to stream on ESPN+.
