CANTON, Ohio – The Malone University volleyball team picked up their second Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) win of the season on Friday evening with a 3-1 victory over Ursuline College. The Pioneers are now 4-9 on the season and the Arrows fall to 2-14. In the G-MAC, Malone improves to 2-3 while Ursuline drops to 0-5.
The Arrows started to take control early in the first set with a 5-2 lead over the Pioneers. Malone began to come back thanks to aces by
Marissa Smith and
Helaina Edgar to make it a one-score set. Ursuline tied the game 24 all off of an error, but the Pioneers took a 29-27 victory with a kill by
Brianne Salinas, and a pair of errors by the Arrows.
The second period was rocky at first for Malone as they trailed 4-0 early. The Pioneers looked to find its rhythm with points from
Jaymes Gilbert and Smith, but Ursuline kept the pressure by extending their lead 10-4. Malone eventually brought themselves back into the set but Ursuline kept the pressure on and took a 25-18 win in set two.
The third set was a similar start for the Pioneers until
Kassidy Gorsuch had a kill followed by Ursuline errors to make the score 4-3. Malone went on a 5-0 run thanks to a kill by Smith, three attack errors by the Arrows, and an ace by Smith. Malone secured the set 25-23 victory from a blocked attack by Gilbert and Gorsuch.
The fourth set was controlled by the Pioneers early with points from Gorsuch and
Haley Conrad. Gilbert and Smith continued their pressure towards the net to keep Malone ahead 12-11. The fourth set stayed close until the Pioneers found momentum off of kills by Gilbert and
Emma Weirich for a 22-18 lead. Ursuline tried to find a way to stay in the game but Conrad and Gorsuch had the set winning block to secure a 3-1 victory for Malone.
The Pioneers were able to put their names into the recordbooks with 16 blocks, the most in a four-set match in the program's NCAA DII history. Conrad had one solo block and eight block assists to tie the individual high-mark for a four-set match. Gilbert also tallied seven block assists.
Gilbert (13) and Salinas (11) combined for 24-out-of-48 kills for the Pioneers, followed by Smith (9), Gorsuch (9), Conrad (3), and Weirich (3). Edgar led Malone's offense with 23 assists followed by
Kelsey Williams (21) with 21. Williams led the way with 17 digs. Smith (13) and Edgar (10) were also in double figures.
Malone University's volleyball team looks to use this win as momentum as they travel to West Virginia on September 26, to take on the Wheeling University Cardinals. That match will begin at 2:00 P.M.
