VOLLEYBALL

Long rallies characterized Tuesday night’s match in Platt Arena which eventually favored the visiting Cougars of Mount Vernon Nazarene over the HU volleyball team, 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 25-23. It’s just the second league match of the season and didn’t disappoint as fans more than got their monies worth in the two-hour affair.

For the Foresters, they drop to 6-6 on the year, 0-2 in CL action, while MVNU still boasts just one loss against 12 wins and a perfect 2-0 league record.

Scrappy defense is a trademark of both teams so it wasn’t too surprising that they combined for 150 digs on the night. Ariene Butler headlined HU’s defense with 23 digs while Paige Eakright and Nicole Flickinger added 18 and 12 respectively. Ellie Ruby finished with a match-high 24 to top four Cougars with double digit digs.

Offense proved just as intense. Herber’s crew posted 64 kills on 161 swings for a .242 hitting percentage while their visitors went 51-for-148 for a .216 hitting percentage.

Eakright took top hitting honors with 18 kills. Lindsay Ingenito and Tya Bynum each established new career highs of 16 and ten kills respectively while Brandy Michie posted a season-best 14 kills. Bynum also had an outstanding night at the net defensively by finishing with a match-high 2.5 blocks, two of which were of the solo variety.

As always, Jennings Tacosik did a little bit of everything for her team by logging a career-best 52 assists, eight digs and three aces.

One area that the Cougars exploited in HU’s defense was the off-speed attack as noted by Herber. “We played a great match tonight, but we did not pick up nearly as many tips as we should. This shows that letting our guard down in just one area can be a difference-maker in regards to the outcome of a match.

“I believe Taylor and Mount Vernon both beat us by utilizing the soft shot game. Therefore, we are going to work extremely hard in practice this week on defense so that come Friday and Saturday, we do not get burnt on tips. We need to play with the mentality that says we refuse to let a ball hit the floor in front of us.”

The Foresters will look to get back on the winning track Friday when they travel to Goshen for a 7:00 p.m. matchup with the Maple Leafs.