Volleyball defeats Schreiner on Friday; Go 1-1 in Day 1 of Home SCAC Conference Weekend
IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas volleyball team split Friday's pair of home matches with Schreiner University and Texas Lutheran University. The Crusaders (10-5, 3-3 SCAC) reached their 10th win overall to match last season's total with a straight set sweep over Schreiner (1-15, 0-6). Dallas would drop its nightcap game to the Bulldogs (4-15, 2-4 SCAC) 3-0.
(Match 1)
The Crusaders were able to knock off Schreiner for their second consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) triumph with 25-14, 25-17, 27-25 set scores. Dayjah Whyte (Round Rock, Texas) registered a game-high 11 kills. Ellise Anable (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Abigail Porras (El Paso, Texas) contributed seven and six kills, respectively.
A trio of players notched double-digits in digs with Krystyn Pua (Escondido, Calif.) leading the way with 17. Sarah Hughes (Fair Oaks, Calif.) added 13, and Anable completed the unit with 10. Dallas outdid the Mountaineers 61-55 in total digs. Elizabeth Smith handled 35 assists.
Austyn Schiller and Alexis Coronado each put up six kills to lead the Mountaineers. Amanda Combs posted five kills. Bianca Olivares and Coronado shared setter duties with 13 and 11 assists, respectively.
UD raced out to a 10-3 advantage in the opening frame. After a kill by Schreiner ended the 7-0 scoring streak, Anable clobbered a kill and went on serve for three more points to help balloon the edge to double-digits. Anable's ace made it 14-4. The Crusaders largest lead of the set was 11 on multiple occasions.
Down 3-1 in the next set, the home team rallied back with seven of the next nine points to take the lead for good. Blocks by Merit Paramo (Wasilla, Alaska) and Isabel Garcia (San Antonio, Texas) opened a 13-8 lead. The Mountaineers scored three points in a row to trim the deficit to three (14-11). Dallas countered with a 7-1 run to go up 21-13. Consecutive kills by Whyte and Paramo ended the frame to give UD a 2-0 set lead.
The final set featured the tightest scores, with nine ties. The largest margin by either side was four, when the Mountaineers had gone up 23-19. Dallas chipped away with kills by Porras and Anable sandwiching an attack error by the opponent. Schreiner got within a set-point at 24-22, but two miscues helped knot the score at 24. Kills by Garcia and Whyte made it 25-24. SU tied it at 25 to force extra points, but UD finished off the set sweep to improve to 3-0 at the Maher Center.
SOCIAL MEDIA
#UDCrusaders WIN! Good start to the #SCACvb weekend at home! Whyte led with 11 kills! #WeAreUD #d3vb pic.twitter.com/W92XrVF9vH
— UDallas Athletics (@UDallasSports) September 29, 2018
(Match 2)
Dallas struggled in the second matchup, falling 25-14, 25-11, 25-18 to Texas Lutheran. The Bulldogs outhit UD .333 to .026, registering 15 more kills (41-26) and assists (36-26). The Crusaders were led offensively by Garcia with seven kills, while Whyte and Porras each tallied six. Smith made 19 assists and Pua was the only UD player in double figures for digs with 25.
Cailey Young led the Bulldogs offense with 15 kills and hit .484. Peyton Sulak added eight. Kelley Jurden had 33 assists. A quartet of players were involved in multiple blocks with Sulak leading with four. TLU made 12 stops as a team.
Texas Lutheran raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Dallas clawed back to make it a one-point deficit (7-6) on the strength of kills by Anable and Whyte. The last pair belonged to Whyte to make it a one-point margin, but TLU answered with four points in a row. The lead swelled to 14-8, and eventually reached double-digits at 22-12.
The Crusaders would stay close through the first 12 points in the second set, as an attack error made it 6-all. Six consecutive points pushed the Bulldogs ahead for good, and then a massive 8-0 stretch countered three points by the home team that had narrowed the score to 13-9 at the time. The big run sent the Bulldogs up to a 2-0 lead in the match.
Dallas scraped in the final set with seven times knotted through a 7-7 score. The Crusaders allowed four points in row to separate Texas Lutheran and eventually gave the guests a 1-1 day for itself in the tournament.
UP NEXT
Dallas wraps up the home slate Saturday with No. 13 Trinity University at 12 p.m. and Johnson & Wales University at 7 p.m.