VOLLEYBALL

Long rallies characterized Wednesday’s volleyball match at Platt Arena with the visiting Trojans of Taylor University eventually trumping the Foresters in four, 17-25, 25-22, 25-20, 26-24. With this win, TU earns the regular season sweep over HU with their first W dating back to September 4.

Both teams recognized early on that no lead was safe with Taylor the first to get stung. Down 16-13 in the first set, Huntington outscored their visitors 12-1 to steal the win for an early 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, Taylor (17-12, 7-5) fought back from at least five down in each of the next three sets to more than pay back their first set loss.

Every point was a battle, and Coach Herber loved how her team scrapped. “My initial reaction to the match is that I love the way we played. We took a step in the right direction tonight and became a better team. I’m proud of my girls.

“Gabby Hall led our pre-match devotional tonight where she talked about playing your heart out. I thought that’s exactly what our girls did tonight.”

Lindsay Ingenito was a force to be reckoned with by putting down a team-high 15 kills on just 20 swings for a .650 hitting percentage. Paige Eakright and Brandy Michie added nine kill apiece while Tya Bynum finished with seven.

Jennings Tacosik parceled out 45 assists. She also posted two aces bringing her total aces to 58 on the year – the second best in the nation. Josephine Rammel registered three as the pair accounted for all about one of their team’s six aces on the evening.

Ariene Butler bolstered the backcourt with 20 digs while Laura Nagle and Eakright tracked down nine each.

Referring to Grace Isaacs and Julia Pomerenke who combined for 33 of Taylor’s 54 kills, Herber had this to say. “At the end of the day, we struggled to shut down Taylor’s middles. Defending the middle attack is one thing we are going to work on in practice tomorrow.”

The Foresters (13-14, 5-7) are back at it this weekend with road trips to Saint Francis on Friday and Spring Arbor on Saturday.