UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's volleyball program hosted Davenport on Friday for their final weekend of the regular season. After falling 2-1 in sets, SVSU won the final two to win the match 3-2. SVSU won the first set 26-24, lost the next two 25-22 and 25-21, then won the last two 25-22 and 15-11.
Madison Thompson led the Cardinals with a season high 20 kills and hit .246 over the five sets. Sage Schumacher led in hitting percentage hitting .368 with nine kills on 19 attacks. Sedona Coon had a double-double with 17 kills and 27 digs. McKenna Sovis ran the offense with a career high 53 assists and had a double-double with 13 digs. Kelsey Vittitow led defensively with a career high 31 digs and the team had 18.5 blocks. Kendall Ihm had a career high 10 blocks, one solo and nine assists.
The first set bounced back-and-forth until a 3-0 run for SVSU snagged the lead. More defensive struggles for Davenport led to another 3-0 run for Saginaw Valley pushing the lead to 13-8 and another 3-0 lead with kills by Coon and Thompson and an ace by Coon gave the Cardinals an 18-11 lead. The Panthers clawed back to take a late lead 22-21, but a 3-0 run with a kill by Ihm and two Panthers errors followed by a 2-0 run with a kill by Nicole Sisk and an ace by Natalie Siler closed out the set.
After the first two points of set two went to Davenport, SVSU had a 3-0 run to take the lead with kills by Schumacher and Coon and an ace by Vittitow. The teams traded one- and two-point streaks until SVSU had a 9-7 lead. Davenport then took the lead with a 5-0 run before pushing their lead to 16-12. A 3-0 run for the Cardinals cut the lead to two before a 4-0 run gave them a 21-20 lead with points coming from two Thompson kills and a kill by Coon and Sovis. Davenport took five of the next six points with a 4-0 run to win the set and tie the match at 1-1.
In set three, Davenport took a 6-4 lead before a 3-0 run off blocks by Ihm, Coon, and Thompson gave SVSU a 7-6 lead. A kill Schumacher and an ace by Sovis pushed the score to 12-10 SVSU before a 7-0 run for Davenport flipped it. Saginaw Valley used two 3-0 runs with kills by Thompson and a block by Coon and Schumacher to bring the score to 23-21 Davenport before a 2-0 run sealed the set for the Panthers.
Davenport was looking to close out and win the match getting an early lead 5-2 in set four. The Cardinals responded with a 3-0 run to cut the lead to two before a 6-0 run made it 15-7 Davenport. That's when the momentum shifted for SVSU. A 7-0 with two aces and kills by Coon and a kill by Thompson cut the lead to one. Another Cardinal run forced a Davenport time out and gave SVSU a 20-17 lead. After Davenport cut it to a 23-22 lead, SVSU had a kill by Emily Foster and a block by Sovis and Ihm to win the set and force a fifth.
The momentum rolled over as SVSU had a 6-0 and 4-0 run to take a 10-1 lead off the back of three straight kills by Thompson to start the set. Davenport pushed back with a 6-0 run to make the set 12-9 in favor of SVSU before a 2-0 run with a kill by Coon and a block by Foster and Ihm set up a final kill for Ihm to win the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
After the highly competitive match, SVSU women's volleyball looks to their final match of the regular season. They host Purdue Northwest on Saturday, November 11 at 2:00 PM. It is senior day with the ceremony taking place after the match.
