Volleyball

The HU volleyball team wrapped up the weekend by splitting on day two of the Forester Invitational. After breezing past Life Pacific, 25-23, 25-18, 25-20, first thing on Saturday, the Foresters were up and down against Brescia later in the day to drop a five-set thriller, 25-20, 13-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-13, to the Bearcats.

In the morning matchup with the Warriors, there weren’t many complaints from the HU contingent as the hosts finished with 45 kills and posted a team hitting percentage of .337. It made for a quick disposal of Life Pacific as the match went just three sets – the Foresters first sweep of the season and second consecutive W with the first coming less than 12 hours earlier against 16th-ranked Cornerstone.

“It was really nice to see us play consistently well against Life Pacific,” said Shondell. “After the win Friday night, coming back and taking care of business was exactly what needed to happen.”

Leading the way at the net was Tailor Schultheis who collected a match-high 12 kills while Lindsay Ingenito went 11-for-14. Jenna Tacosik orchestrated the offense by handing out 38 assists with Brandy Michie and Lanie McClanahan also a few of her favorite targets as the duo combined for 15 kills.

Tacosik’s name littered the stat sheet as she also posted five kills, three aces and eight digs. Ariene Butler and Paige Eakright added 11 and ten digs respectively.

For as fluid as Huntington’s offense was against LPC, it was a bit of a rollercoaster against Brescia but not for lack of effort. Both teams battled for any sort of advantage as evidenced by alternating wins through the first four sets before the Bearcats closed the deal in the fifth.

Offensively, Schultheis sparked Huntington by pounding down 14 kills while four other Foresters collected at least seven each.

Three Bearcats registered double-digit kills but ultimately the Foresters didn’t have an answer for Natalie Jones who finished with 25 of her team’s 61 kills. Five of those kills came in the fifth set where BU rattled off the final four points to turn their 13-12 deficit into a 15-13 win.

While Shondell and crew want the match back, the HU skipper was quick to put words to the night. “Brescia blew me away, honestly. I couldn’t believe how well they played.

“In order to be battle-tested, you need to go through a few battles, and that’s what tonight was.”

Each team committed 11 service errors and logged three team blocks.

Tacosik ran the offense by dishing out 46 dimes and her leadership didn’t go unnoticed as she was named to the All-Tournament Team as voted on by the opposing coaches.

Other members of the All-Tournament Team included Leticia Back de Burlet (Life Pacific), Devon Heitkamp (UNOH), Alexa Hill (Grace), Natalie Jones (Brescia) and Kendra Zwart (Cornerstone).

The Foresters (2-2) now have a break until August 29 when they travel to Goshen for their first conference matchup.