Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College volleyball team split its matches on day two of its quad as they fell to John Carroll University, 3-2, but rebounded in its second match with a 3-1 defeat of the Adrian College, 3-1, on Saturday afternoon.
Adrian Recap
In the final match of the Oberlin Quad the Yeowomen took the opening two games, 25-18, 25-22. The Bulldogs defeatd the Yeowomen in the third, 20-25, but Oberlin finished off the match in the fourth, 25-19.
Lexi Mitchell broke open the first set with three straight aces accompanied with an Adrian attack error to give the Yeowomen an early 10-4 advantage. The Yeowomen never looked back as they did not let the Bulldogs within four points the rest of the game. Mitchell led the Yeowomen attack with five kills in the opening frame.
Trailing for the majority of set two, Oberlin tied it late as a Bulldogs error made it 21-21. The Yeowomen completed the comeback as they earned six of the last seven points capped by a pair of kills by
Jaya Flynn-Young.
After dropping the third game, 20-25, Oberlin blew the final game open with a 10-2 run which broke a 10-10 stalemate. The Bulldogs would come within four points late in the match but a service error and bad set by Adrian gave the Yeowomen its sixth victory of the season.
Mitchell kept her hot streak going as she finished the match with 21 kills to go with her four service aces. The South Carolina native has recorded 20 or more kills in the four of the last six matches. In addition, Flynn-Young had a season-high 11 kills and just two errors for a hitting percentage of .409.
Sara Chang kept the offense on track with 31 assists, while
Samantha Lam contributed 18.
Emily Kelkar secured the Yeowomen back line as she finished with a season-high 26 digs. Mitchell and
Maura Gibbs also added 15 digs a piece. The team finished the match with six blocks as Flynn-Young had one solo and two assisted, while
Emery Beacom assisted on two.
JCU Recap
In their first match of the day, Oberlin suffered a gut-wrenching five-set defeat to the John Carroll University Blue Streaks. Oberlin won the first two sets with relative ease – 25-21 and 25-17 – and had match-point in the third game only to see it slip away 24-26, 19-25, 3-15.
With a 24-23 lead in hand and a potential second win in a row just one point away. The Yeowomen could not find that elusive 25th point in the third as an Oberlin attack error was coupled with a JCU kill and ace to extend the match.
With the momentum now lifted from the Yeowomen, the Blue Streaks would take advantage to win the next two games and the match.
Mitchell led the Oberlin attack with 18 kills on 41 swings as she hit .268 in the setback. The junior added four aces and 15 digs for the Yeowomen. Rookie Beacom joined Mitchell with double-digit finishes as she hammered down 13 kills to accompany her team-high five block assists.
Chang stuffed the stat sheet with 44 assists while adding five kills, four block assists, and four digs. Lam came on to drop in four of Oberlin's 12 aces while also scooping up 16 digs. Kelkar steadied the back row 18 digs and chipped in two aces as well.
JCU finished with a 59-54 edge in kills, hitting .230 compared to Oberlin's .152. The Blue Streaks committed 22 attack errors, while Oberlin made 29 miscues on the attack.
Cassi Calamunci (21) and Brooke Hjerpe (19) guided the Blue Streaks as they combined for 40 kills.
Oberlin is back at home for a conference match against the Denison University Big Red on Tuesday night. The opening serve is set for 7 p.m. in Philips Gymnasium.
