UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's volleyball program was coming off one of their best matches of the season this past weekend and was finally back at home after nearly a month when they hosted the Michigan Tech Huskies Friday evening. Riding the momentum, they took set one 25-19 before losing the next three with scores of 25-21, 25-23, and 25-17 and dropping the match 3-1.
McKenna Sovis continues to shine for the Cardinals after her career game against McKendree last weekend. Sovis almost matched her high in assists of 46 set last Friday with 41 assists in today's match against the Huskies. Sarah Veale and Madison Thompson led SVSU offensively with 12 kills each while Veale had a double-double with 12 digs. Kelsey Vittitow led the team defensively with 15 digs.
The match started strong and SVSU did not trail until MTU took an 18-17 lead in the second set. Set one started with a Cardinal advantage and then a 4-0 run including a block by Nicole Sisk and Kendall Ihm making it 7-2. Michigan Tech cut the lead to one making it 9-8 later on and the two traded two and three point runs back and forth. After stretching the lead to 19-14, Saginaw Valley had a kill by Sage Schumacher lead to back-to-back aces for Veale before Thompson ended the first set with a Cardinal win.
Set two was a story of trades and ties. Saginaw Valley continued to take small leads and Michigan Tech continued to tie it up as the set was knotted up six different times. That's when the Huskies took their first lead of the match and started to take some momentum. A 7-0 run for Michigan Tech forced both timeouts for Saginaw Valley before the Cardinals had a 3-0 run to cut it to 24-21 Huskies. Tech would take the final point and tie the match at one set a piece.
Michigan Tech started set three with the lead before a kill by Sisk and an ace for Ihm tied it at 5-5. A 6-0 Tech run gave them the lead and a SVSU timeout led to a 4-0 run of their own including two kills by Schumacher. MTU kept their three-to-five-point lead until a 5-0 run for SVSU including the fifth ball handling error by Michigan Tech made it 21-20 Huskies. The teams traded points until SVSU was looking to force a win-by-two situation down 24-23. Tech called a timeout and then got a block to win the set.
The final set was the slowest start for SVSU falling victim to a 7-0 run to start and then a 4-0 run afterwards. Finding themselves down 11-1, the Cardinals fought to make it competitive. Thompson had back-to-back kills in a 3-0 run before another 3-0 run late made it 23-16 Michigan Tech. However, the Huskies would snap off two kills in the next three rallies and take the match.
Women's volleyball is back in action tomorrow with the Northern Michigan Wildcats in town. The first set is scheduled for 5:00 PM and it is their alumni event.
