Marshall Volleyball had a successful weekend, sweeping the App State Mountaineers on Friday, Oct. 20, and winning a five-set match on Saturday, Oct. 21. The Friday night matchup was dominated by the Herd, with a final score of 25-17, 25-21, 25-16. Coach Ari Aganus attributed the team’s success to their focus on keeping the game simple and feeding the hot hand.
Brynn Brown had an impressive performance, finishing the match with 31 assists and 10 digs for a double-double. She also had a hitting percentage of .667. Kylee Stokes led the team with 12 kills, while Essence Clerkley had eight kills and a match-high seven blocks.
In the first set, the Herd trailed 6-2 early on but fought back to take the set 25-17. They finished the set with an 11-2 run, including a 5-0 rally that was capped off by a block from Stokes and Lydia Montague.
The second set started off similarly, with Marshall trailing 9-2. However, they once again battled back and took a 19-18 lead. They closed out the set with six of the final nine points, winning 25-21.
The third set was closely contested until the Herd took control, winning 13 of the final 17 points. They finished the set with a hitting percentage of .438 to complete the sweep with a 25-16 victory.
On Saturday, the Herd faced a tougher challenge from App State but ultimately came out on top in a five-set thriller. After winning the first two sets 25-20 and 25-23, Marshall dropped the third and fourth sets 20-25 and 19-25, respectively.
In the final set, the Mountaineers took an early lead, but the Herd quickly regained control and won six of the next eight points. They went on to win the deciding set 15-10, with a kill from Stokes sealing the victory.
“App definitely answered back to what we did,” Aganus said. “It was great volleyball. That’s what you want.”
Stokes had a career-high 21 kills in the match, while Brown recorded her second double-double of the weekend with 47 assists and 23 digs. Riley Winslow and Jazminn Parrish also had notable performances, with Winslow recording a career-high 26 digs and Parrish also finishing with a career-high of 25 digs and 11 kills for a double-double.
