Posted: Sep 30, 2022
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Sarah Veale registered a match-high 14 kills to lead three Cardinals in double digits as the Saginaw Valley State University women's volleyball team snapped a three-match losing streak with a resounding 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 victory Friday evening over visiting Purdue Northwest in Hamilton Gymnasium.
The host Cardinals improve to 9-7 on the season, including 5-3 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while the Pride slip to 6-10 overall and 1-7 in the GLIAC.
How it Happened:
- Saginaw Valley opened the match by hitting .394 in the first set and holding Purdue Northwest to a .206 clip.
- The visitors took a 7-4 lead after a SVSU service error, but the Cardinals used a 13-3 spurt mostly on Veale's serve to take a commanding 17-10 lead in the opening frame.
- She had two service aces and a kill during that rally.
- SVSU went on to take the first set by seven points as the teams split the next 16 points.
- In the second set, SVSU fell behind 11-5 before eventually taking a 14-13 advantage on a PNW attack error, which was punctuated by a Patricia Pratt block.
- SVSU would not trail again in the middle frame.
- Just like the previous two sets, SVSU fell behind early only to roar past the Pride. In the final stanza, PNW jumped out to a 13-6 lead. But Rylee Zimmer had two kills to ignite a 10-3 run as the Cardinals tied it 16-16 on Peyton Gerstacker's kill.
- Purdue Northwest went up 18-16 but SVSU responded by taking six of the next seven points to forge ahead 22-19.
- The Pride tied it 22-22 after a SVSU timeout, but the Cardinals took advantage of two PNW errors and a kill from Rylee Zimmer to seal the win.
- For the match, SVSU outhit PNW .300 to .145, had nine aces and nine more digs (60-51).
Inside the Box Score:
- Veale finished with a .500 attack percentage on 24 attempts against just two errors. She also had 11 digs to complete a double-double to go along with two aces.
- Madison Thompson and Zimmer had 10 kills apiece to chip in the SVSU offense, which got 31 assists from Gerstacker.
- Bryanna Moonen led PNW with eight kills and a .500 attack percentage.
- On defense, Zimmer topped all student-athletes with 16 digs followed by her teammates Kelsey Vittitow and Gerstacker with 13 each.
- Livia Thomsen contributed 15 digs for the Pride.
Up Next:
Saginaw Valley wraps up its four-match homestand versus GLIAC foe Davenport at 4 p.m. Saturday.
