LONGVIEW – Make it seven straight.
LeTourneau University's volleyball team swept Belhaven in a pair of matches Tuesday at Solheim Arena. The YellowJackets (7-0, 4-0 American Southwest Conference) won the first match, 21-25, 25-14, 25-16, 25-14, before claiming the second, 25-8, 25-16, 25-23.
Skylar Fowler had 12 kills and two blocks, and hit .450 in the first match.
Kianna Crow had 10 kills, 11 digs, three aces and two blocks.
Natalie Connelly had eight kills and two blocks, while hitting .375.
Madison Denega and
Allison Smith each had seven kills.
Natalie Davenport had 28 assists, and
Samantha Winkel 13 assists and two aces.
Courtney Edge had 21 digs, and
Kylie Cobb five aces and four kills, while hitting .500.
In the second match, Crow had 11 kills, 16 digs, two aces and two blocks. Fowler had seven kills,
Avery Mabery added six kills, and hit .385, and Connelly five kills, with a .455 attack percentage. Davenport had 18 assists and nine digs. Winkel had 13 assists and two aces. Edge had 14 digs, and Cobb three aces.
LeTourneau hit .281 in the first match, while Belhaven (0-6, 0-6) was held to a .119 attack rate. In the second match, the Jackets hit .265, and the Blazers .110.
After dropping the first set, LETU used a 5-0 run to take a 20-10 lead in the second set. Denega banged a kill, Cobb had an ace, Connelly pounded a kill, and Crow added two more.
Camryn Hill had back-to-back kills to make it 23-12. Crow's kill four serves later tied the match at 1-1.
After Belhaven won the first two points to start the third set, the YellowJackets blitzed the Blazers with a 15-0 run. Mabery's kill extended the lead to 18-8. A kill by Smith, a Belhaven attack error and putaway by Winkel made it 22-10. The Blazers inched within 22-14, but Denega had a kill and two Belhaven errors put the Jackets up a set in the match.
In the final set, LeTourneau raced out to a 17-6 lead behind back-to-back kills from Smith, two straight aces by Crow, a pair of Blazers setting errors, a kill by Mabery, a pair of blocks by Smith – the first of which she combined with Mabery – and another ace by Crow. Fowler's kill pushed the lead to 20-8. Belhaven cut it to 22-13 before Connelly sent a laser to the floor, Crow and Smith had a block, and Crow ended the match on a setup from Cobb.
LETU had 11 aces in the first set, while Belhaven had three. The Jackets outblocked the Blazers, 9-5. LeTourneau had 53 assists and 69 digs to Belhaven's 28 and 47, respectively.
The Jackets jumped all over the Blazers to start the second match, zipping out to a 16-1 lead in the opening set, and Belhaven never recovered. LeTourneau had 13 kills and two errors in the set for a .367 attack percentage. The Blazers had just three kills and six errors for a -0.103 hitting percentage.
Belhaven used a four-point run to tie the second set at 9-9, but Connelly banged down a rocket to give the Jackets a 15-10 cushion. Chelsea Creighton and Raegan Young's block pulled the Blazers within 17-14, but Smith pounded an overpass kill, and a Belhaven setting error pushed LETU's lead back to five. LeTourneau used a 4-0 run behind a kill and two aces by Crow and a pair of putaways by Mabery to move the YellowJackets within a point of closing out the set and a 24-15 lead. After a block by Young, Mabery put down a ball from Winkel to push the Jackets within a set of the sweep.
LeTourneau pounded 17 kills in the second set, hitting .289. Belhaven hit .200 on 10 kills and two errors.
In the decisive set that featured four ties and four lead changes, Belhaven pulled within 16-14. Winkel's ace gave the Jackets a 19-16 lead. The Blazers ran off three straight points to cut the gap to 21-20 before taking a 23-22 lead on Vivien Marquez's ace. But Connelly banged home a ball from Davenport, and two serves later Crow put the finishing touches on the win.
The Jackets will play at the University of Texas at Dallas in a pair of matches Saturday.
