MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa.— McNeese volleyball opened the season with a 3-2 (25-13, 28-30, 20-25, 25-23, 15-7) come from behind victory over Elon here Friday at the Robert Morris Hilton Invitational.
"Man- this was a good win," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "I'm proud of the effort in our come back today. We really could have cashed it in in the fourth set after a tough second set loss and a lackluster third set performance. Glueck really had some timely hitting and blocking to close out the fourth set and Nelms had a great fifth set. This team is definitely a work in progress, and we have a long way to go and a lot of potential.
We served a lot of aces today against a good receiving Elon team. Stiawalt went on some huge serving runs today. We have a goal to really out serve the opposing team and for the most part, when it mattered, we did that today."
Senior Keegan Nelms and transfer Regan Stiawalt both recorded double doubles. Nelms led the way with 16 kills and 19 digs while Stiawalt added 10 kills and 10 digs. Stiawalt picked up seven points from the service line with seven aces. Senior libero Angela McGownd was credited with 12 digs.
Sophomore Kendall Glueck and junior Allison Lippert combined for 13 blocks. Glueck ended the match with seven (five assists, 2 solo) and Lippert had six (five assists, 1 solo). Freshmen Ajani Hodges and Macee Krpec were both credited with four blocks apiece.
Set 1: McNeese took command early and continued to dominate throughout the first set. With a 4-3 lead, the Cowgirls went on a 6-3 run to take a 10-7 lead. Leading 11-9, McNeese went on another scoring run this time an 8-0 run behind the serve of Regan Stiawalt to take a 19-9 lead. The Cowgirls closed out the set on an Elon hitting error.
Set 2: McNeese scored the first three points on kills by Stiawalt and Kendall Glueck and an Elon error. Elon scored the next three points to even the set at three apiece. The set switched hands several times and with the scored tied at 17, Elon went on a 4-2 run to take a 21-19 lead. McNeese eventually took a 28-27 lead on an Allison Lippert kill and an Elon error. Back to back kills by Leah Daniel gave Elon a 29-28 lead before a Cowgirl error ended the set.
Set 3: Elon opens the set with a 6-2 lead then increased it to 8-4 behind solid blocking. Trailing 10-6, McNeese scores four straight points to even the set at 10 all. Back to back service aces gave McNeese its first lead of the set at 12-10. Three straight points including two kills by Keegan Nelms and a block assist by Allison Lippert and Macee Krpec extended the McNeese to 16-12. Elon responded with four straight points to even the set at 16, forcing McNeese to call a timeout. With McNeese leading 18-17 behind a block solo by Lipper, Elon outscored McNeese 8-2 the rest of the way to take the set and an overall 2-1 match lead.
Set 4: Elon held as much as a four point lead early in the set until another block assist by Lippert and Krpec along with a kill by Nelms tied it at 15 apiece. Two big back to back block assists by Kendall Glueck and Ajani Hodges gave McNeese a 21-20 advantage. On the next play, Glueck picked up a solo block for a 22-20 lead. Another block solo and a kill by Glueck gave McNeese the 25-23 win to even the match at two sets apiece.
Set 5: Cowgirls open the set with a 7-4 lead behind four kills from Nelms. McNeese extended its lead to 12-5 behind more blocking by Krpec and Lippert and a kill by Stiawalt. After a kill by Lippert, two attacking errors by Elon gave McNeese the fifth set and overall match victory.
NEXT MATCH: McNeese will face Manhattan at 10 a.m. and Robert Morris at 4 p.m. Saturday to conclude tournament play.
