Statesmen Post Second Road Reverse-Sweep Win in Last Two Weeks

Cedar Rapids--Six players tallied at least five kills as the William Penn women's volleyball team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to reverse sweep Mount Mercy 3-2 in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Tuesday.

WPU (13-12, 7-5 Heart), which won by scores of 23-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-21, 20-18, earned its second reverse sweep on the road in the last two weeks; the Statesmen also accomplished the feat against Clarke back on September 26 in Dubuque.

Despite outhitting the Mustangs .224-.200 in the opening set, the visitors failed to come out on top.  In a round that featured five lead changes, the navy and gold were cruising with a 20-14 edge, but MMU (14-6, 7-3 Heart) stormed back.  Still ahead 23-21, WPU unfortunately gave up four answered and fell behind 1-0 in the match.

The home squad held onto that momentum and sprinted out to a 9-0 lead in the second set before the Statesmen woke up and eventually got within one at 13-12.  The visitors were unable to get over the hump, however, and had their proverbial backs to the wall with a 2-0 deficit.

William Penn, which has now gone the distance in six bouts this fall, refused to yield to the Mustangs and outhit its host .333-.122 in a third set that saw it lead wire-to-wire (one tie at 2-2).

Very much alive in the contest, the visiting crew continued its march into a much tighter fourth set.  The sides were knotted up six times with the last occurrence happening at 7-7.  The Statesmen then tallied three points in a row and seven of the next eight to pull away.  MMU trimmed the margin to two on three separate occasions, but each time WPU had an answer as it forced a fifth and decisive set.

As nail-biting as the fourth round was, the fifth set took those cuticles to the nubs with 15 ties and six lead changes.  On top at 12-11, the Statesmen permitted three straight by the Mustangs and faced a pair of set points.

Alyssa Young (Sr., Winter Springs, Fla., Exercise Science) made it 14-13 in favor of MMU with a kill, while back-to-back Mount Mercy hitting errors gave the visitors the lead.  The next eight points were sideouts, including a kill by Alyvia Johnson (Jr., Owatonna, Minn., Business Management) to give the edge back to William Penn at 19-18.

Johnson then put the match to rest with another kill as she finished with a match-high 20 on Tuesday.

Overall, the Statesmen posted a .232-.160 hitting advantage with a 69-65 margin in total kills.

Three other WPU attackers reached double figures, including Riley Hungate (So., Joliet, Ill., Business Management) with 13, Jade Melton (Sr., Hallsville, Mo., Psychology) with 12, and Young with 11 on a team-best .333 rate.

Andressa Borges (Jr., Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sports Management) added eight winners, while Patricia De Souza (Jr., Sao Paulo, Brazil, Fine Arts) contributed five more.

Mia Brady (So., Pontiac, Ill., Exercise Science) ended up with a double-double of 33 assists and 23 digs; the sophomore also served up three of William Penn's five aces.  Fellow setter Cate Hahn (Jr., St. Charles, Mo., Biology) matched Brady with a double-double of her own as she tallied 19 assists and 10 digs.

Speaking of double-doubles, Johnson had arguably the toughest one.  In addition to her 20 kills, she also finished with a squad-high 25 digs.  Kaya Caprini (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Psychology) tied Brady with 23 digs of her own.

Of her team's 11 blocks, Young guided the crew with eight (all assists), while Borges was next with four block assists as well.

"Tonight was a battle; we knew it would be from start to finish," Head Coach Lauren Eldridge said.  "It was another five-setter, which we know something about lately and fortunately we executed when we had to.  We were able to use every hitter to put balls away and our defense kept us in it the whole time.  This was a great road win to start the second half of the conference season, and now we will enjoy a much-needed weekend of rest."

Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa next Tuesday to host Clarke in Heart play at 7 p.m.