VOLLEYBALL

The HU volleyball team defended their home turf Friday night at Platt Arena by downing Grace in a five-setter thriller (25-22, 23-25, 21-25, 26-24, 15-7) to improve to 8-12 on the year, 4-5 in league play.

The Foresters have walked away with wins in four of the six five-set matches they’ve been a part of this season.

The odds stacked up against the hosts several times tonight with their resilience shining through. After winning the first set, Herber and crew lost the next two and then found themselves on the brink of losing set four by staring at a 24-23 deficit.

It would have been easy to buckle but instead HU rose to the occasion. Layla Meyer posted a rare back row kill to pull things even at 24-24. After a Grace ball handling error, Kortney Grimm closed out the set with one of her team-high 15 kills to force the rubber match.

The rest, as they say, was history as HU cruised to the win by more than doubling up the score in the fifth set by the time it was all said and done.

In addition to Grimm’s 15 kills, the sophomore outside hitter also tallied nine digs and two blocks. HU also got plenty of offensive production from Haley Kruse who racked up 12 kills on 25 swings.

“Kortney and Haley did a great job for us on the outside tonight,” said Coach Kelsey Herber. “Kortney led us in kills, and Haley hit a .400 percentage. I appreciate how they took care of the ball.”

Herber’s middles were dangerous on both sides of the net. Leah Carter finished with eight kills and three blocks while Tya Bynum added six kills and 4.5 stuffs. Morgan Robrock was her usual active self having posted 42 assists, six digs, three kills and 1.5 blocks.

In addition to an efficient offense as evidenced by a .311 hitting percentage as a team, Huntington matched that effort defensively as well. The Foresters logged 13 blocks to Grace’s four. It’s the sixth time this year HU has logged double-digit blocks. Their backline defense was by committee with Meyer leading the charge with 14 digs.

What happened behind the endline was also key to HU’s win. Kendyll Gebert enjoyed four of her team’s six aces while the Foresters reaped the benefit of 17 Lancer service errors.

“Tonight’s mindset was to be dawgs defensively, to finish and bring fire from start to finish,” said Herber. “That’s exactly what we did tonight, and I couldn’t be prouder of the fight our team displayed tonight.”

Round two of league play kicks off tomorrow with HU hosting #RV Saint Francis at 3:00 p.m. The first meeting between these two squads saw the Foresters steal a 3-1 road win.