Box Score The Lady Royals earned a much needed win Thursday night, but they created some drama to make it happen. After taking the first two sets against visiting Ferrum, EMU's volleyball women had to fight out a 15-11 win in game five to clinch the victory.
The women scored first in game one, but ended up trailing 20-17. The Panthers were plagued with errors from there, however, as EMU grabbed a 25-22 win.
Eastern Mennonite again scored first in game two, and kept running out to leads of 14-8 and 19-11. Ferrum clawed all the back to within one point before the Lady Royals scored the final three to win 25-21.
Game three looked like it might be the closer when EMU scored the first five and led 10-3. But Ferrum came back to tie the score at 21-21, then streak off three straight to steal a 25-23 win. Game four was a similar story, with the Panthers coming back from a 19-11 deficit to win 25-23.
But in game five, the Lady Royals grabbed control with a five-point run to break a 5-5 tie and never looked back en route to a 15-11 clincher.
Sara Ritchie (Harrisonburg, VA/Turner Ashby) led all players with 22 kills while middle hitter Rachel Kennel (Parkesburg, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) added nine kills with just one attack error. Karla Martin (Stuarts Draft, VA/Grace Christian) added 11 kills. Mattie Lehman (New Paris, IN/Bethany Christian) had 40 sets assists.
The women served tough, landing 13 aces. Jessica Goertzen (Goessel, KS/Goessel) led the team with four aces, while Ritchie and Martin each had three.
Martin also led the back row with a match high 22 digs. Libero Katie Miller (San Antonio, TX/Brandeis) was right behind with 20 pick-ups. Lehman and Goertzen were also in double figures with 19 and 17, respectively.
The win snaps a six-game losing skid for EMU, upping their record to 3-10 overall. The Lady Royals return to conference play on Saturday, hosting rival Bridgewater at 11:00am to open a tri-match. The women also play North Carolina Wesleyan at 3:00pm.
Click here to see a video postgame interview with Coach Jeff Tyson.
