JACKSON, Miss. -- After dropping Friday's first match to Belhaven in five sets, the LeTourneau volleyball team responded with a sweep of Oglethorpe at the Belhaven Invitational at Rugg Arena.
LeTourneau (2-4) easily dispatched Oglethorpe in three sets (25-19, 25-20, 25-12) after having its comeback attempt fall short in a five-set loss to Belhaven (25-20, 27-25, 20-25, 21-25, 15-11).
MATCH TWO: LeTourneau 3, Oglethorpe 0
LeTourneau tallied 36 kills and cruised to a sweep of Oglethorpe 25-19, 25-20, 25-12 inside Rugg Arena on Friday night.
The YellowJackets hit .219 as a team with 36 kills, while limiting Oglethorpe (2-3) to a .053 hitting percentage.
Elizabeth Corbitt paced LeTourneau with eight kills, while
Ashlyn Walther and
Emily Mullin each had seven. Mullin also tallied 10 assists and six digs in the win.
Hailee Perry added 10 assists and
Rebekah Dragoo had 11 digs.
LeTourneau methodically pulled away in the first set, using an 8-1 run to take a 23-15 lead after a kill from
Claire Bezanilla and took the opening frame by a 25-19 final. The second set was also tight until LeTourneau pulled away at the end and a Corbitt kill ended the set for a 25-20 victory.
The YellowJackets claimed a second sweep of the season after taking a 25-12 victory in the third. LeTourneau outscored Oglethorpe, 16-6, over the final 22 points to cruise to the win.
Jane Pennington led Oglethorpe with eight kills.
MATCH ONE: Belhaven 3, LeTourneau 2
LeTourneau nearly came back from a 2-0 match deficit as the YellowJackets forced a fifth set, but could not hold off Belhaven in a 3-2 (25-20, 27-25, 20-25, 21-25, 15-11) to open Friday's action.
Nora Lockhart had 11 kills with eight blocks to lead the way for LeTourneau, while Corbitt also had 11 kills with four blocks. Walther added 10 kills and five blocks. Mullin tallied 17 assists and Perry had 15 in the loss.
Maddy Hirneise had 20 digs with Dragoo totaling 17 along the back.
The YellowJackets struggled in the early going and dropped the first two sets. In the second set, LeTourneau led 19-14 before Belhaven stormed back and grabbed a 24-23 lead. A kill from
Logan Lear and a Belhaven error gave LeTourneau a set point chance at 25-24, but Belhaven rattled off three straight to go ahead 2-0 in the match.
LeTourneau got back in its groove in the third and fourth sets. The YellowJackets tallied 11 kills in each frame with its two highest hitting percentages of the match. LeTourneau used an 8-2 run midway through the third to gain a 17-10 lead and led by as many as 10 (23-13) later in the set before taking a 25-20 victory.
In the fourth, LeTourneau trailed 16-13, but then outscored the host Blazers 10-3 over the next 13 rallied to go ahead 23-19 after an ace from
Ashlyn Walther. A kill from
Elizabeth Corbitt capped the set and sent the match into the fifth.
It was all LeTourneau early in the fifth as the YellowJackets gained an 8-5 lead on another kill from Corbitt. Belhaven responded, though, with five straight points and LeTourneau never led again.
Belhaven (1-5) had a match-high 24 kills from Tarryn Woodall and 57 assists from Maggie Joy Tomlin. Kayla Robinson had 30 digs for the Blazers.
UP NEXT
LeTourneau concludes the weekend trip to Jackson on Saturday against Millsaps (10 a.m.) and Huntingdon (12 p.m.) at the Hangar Dome on the campus of Millsaps.
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