The Malone University volleyball team picked up its second straight five-set Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) victory on Saturday afternoon at Kentucky Wesleyan College. A day after defeating Trevecca Nazarene in five sets, the Pioneers won in nearly identical fashion: starting fast in the opening, dropping the second and third sets, and then battling back to win sets four and five. The 25-22, 20-25, 18-25, 27-25, 15-9 win over the Panthers improved Malone to 7-4 overall on the season and 2-1 in the G-MAC.

Recap
Debuting their new blue uniforms on Saturday, the Pioneers opened up the match on a 6-0 run that featured four straight KWC attack errors. Taking advantage of 16 kills and a .364 attacking percentage throughout the set, Malone held off a 12-4 KWC run midway through by winning four of the final five points to go up a set to none. The Pioneers went up by five points (7-2) in the early parts of the second set, but 9-1 and 6-0 runs helped the home team even up the match with the second-set victory.
 
The two squads played to an 11-11 deadlock in the third set, but a big 7-0 run gave the hosts the momentum and eventually the set. In a back-and-forth fourth set, the Pioneers went up 7-2 early but saw themselves down 22-18 and on the verge of the defeat near the end of the set. Still down 24-23 and facing match point, Malone came up with back-to-back kills by Hannah Eliason and Mallory Adams to recapture the lead. The Pioneers kept their poise and used a Veronica Gehring kill and a KWC attack error to force a fifth and final set.
 
Malone then took advantage of eight Kentucky Wesleyan errors combined with six kills, two by Georgia Kiko, and ace in the decisive set to come away with another well-earned victory.
 
Gehring led Malone with 15 kills in the match. Eiason and Adams delivered 11 and 10 kills respectively. Rachel Santos chipped in with eight. Abbie Swaino distributed 24 assists and tossed in two service aces, including the match-sealing ace in the fifth.
 
Sydney Black collected a career-high 22 digs to lead the backrow. Maggie Hamrock totaled 14 digs while Swaino completed her first collegiate double-double by recording 12. At the net, Adams and Brooklyn Sullivan each finished with seven blocks. Santos added three.
 
As a team, Malone registered 14 blocks, but allowed 13 service aces.
 
Sierra Morrow totaled 10 kills, on just 16 swings, and seven blocks to lead Kentucky Wesleyan.
 
Up Next
Malone will play three straight nights of G-MAC East Division matches beginning on Thursday, September 21st at Davis & Elkins.