Marshall Volleyball traveled to Davidson, North Carolina, to participate at the Davidson Tournament from Friday, Aug. 30, to Saturday, Aug. 31. There, it won against ETSU on Friday 25-18, 25-20 and 25-22. The team lost to Davidson at noon on Saturday 25-17, 25-15 and 25-18. The last game of the tournament ended with a Marshall sweep against Elon 27-25, 25-23 and 25-22.
After a tough loss to Davidson, the Herd found a way to bounce back against Elon. Players like Beatrice Ciccarelli led the charge by landing eight of her 14 attacks as well as four blocks with three solos. McKenna Melton led the team in kills with nine on 26 attacks. Brynn Brown had a match high 28 assists, and Peyton Neal had 14 digs.
“The team mindset overall was locked in,” Brynn Brown said. “We were eager to start the season off strong and execute the game plan given to us by the coaches. We executed well the first match vs ETSU and got the sweep. After Davidson, we knew we needed to refocus and lock in on the next match. We bounced back and ended up beating Elon 3-0.”
The first set was led most entirely by the Herd, but Elon managed to come back and make it a match point 25-24. However, the Herd responded with kills by Melton and Audrey Geer. In the second set, Elon held a 20-17 advantage against the Herd, but that was quickly met with an 8-3 run by Marshall to take the frame 25-23. The final set saw Elon and Marshall battle it out with a tie at 9-9. The Herd then went on another run to give them a 15-9 advantage. This run pushed Marshall to win the final frame and sweep the Phoenix.
Marshall Volleyball head coach Ari Aganus applauded her team after the classic.
“I’m so proud of our team effort today,” Aganus said. “Being able to turn right around and beat Elon was a huge test for our resilience and fight. Things got cleaned up quickly. Absolute team effort all weekend. We have a lot to clean up and work out on to get ready for next weekend.”
The Herd will play their next matches at the Eastern Michigan Tournament on Sept. 6-7, where they will play against Oakland at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Tariq Montgomery can be contacted at [email protected].
