Bluefield, W.Va.— The Bluefield State Volleyball team defeated Salem International University (5-16) tonight 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-14) in the Ned E. Shott Gymnasium. The win brings the Lady Blues overall record to 18-5 on the season.
Box Score
In the first set, the Lady Blues started out a little slow and were down early 8-11. The Tigers continued to be aggressive and pushed the lead 16-11. The Lady Blues rallied 3 points while Thais Nogueira-Nunes was on serve to cut the lead 14-17.
The Tigers came right back and pushed the lead 21-16, and eventually took the set 25-19 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
In the second set, the Lady Blues started out more aggressively and took a 4-2 lead after a kill by Tyann Thomas and a serving ace by Jessie Rehwald. The Lady Blues rallied 4 points, 3 of those points came while Jelena Jevtic was on serve. She had a serving ace to give the Lady Blues a 12-7 lead.
The Lady Blues continued to push to take a 18-13 lead, but after 2 hitting errors, they were only up by 3 points. Coach Poitier called a timeout to stop the Tigers momentum. Right out of the timeout, Brittney Deveaux had a kill from the right side. After a kill by Tyann Thomas, the Lady Blues took a 22-17 lead, forcing the Tigers to call a timeout. Jelena Jevtic served an ace to give the Lady Blues a 23-17 lead, but an error gave the ball back to the Tigers. Tyann Thomas had a kill to finish the game 25-19, to make the match tied at 1-1.
In the third set, the Lady Blues took a quick 4-2 lead after 2 serving aces by Jelena Jevtic. Midway through the game, the Lady Blues took a 10-7 lead after a block by Brittney Deveaux and a kill by Tanasia Blake. The Tigers got within 1 point, but a monster kill by Brittany Bonamy pushed the lead back to 2 points and the Lady Blues extended their lead 16-12 forcing the Tigers to call a timeout.
The Lady Blues pushed their lead 22-14, the biggest of the game, causing the Tigers to call another timeout. The Tigers fought back to score a couple points, but the Lady Blues took the game 25-18. Lady Blues up 2-1 in the match.
The Tigers took an early 6-2 lead in the fourth game, causing Coach Poitier to take a timeout to re-group. It worked; the Lady Blues went on a 6-1 run to take the lead 8-7. The Lady Blues continued to push and took a 11-9 lead, causing the Tigers to call a timeout, to hopefully stop the momentum. The Lady Blues didn't stop and went on a 5-0 run to take a 16-10 lead. The Lady Blues continued to dominate and took the game 25-14 after a kill by Leandrea Armbrister, which gave the Lady Blues the match 3-1.
The Lady Blues combined for 53 kills, 30 digs, and 11 serving aces compared to their opponents' 41 kills, 59 digs, and 1 serving ace.
Senior Sashane Watson led the Lady Blues with 12 kills with 3 errors on 20 attempts. Junior Tanasia Blake had a great match with 10 kills with 0 errors on 16 attempts for a .625 attack percentage. Sophomore Brittney Deveaux had a good game as well with 10 kills, 0 errors on 17 attempts for a .588 attack percentage. She also had 2 digs, 2 solo blocks, and 4 assisted blocks. Junior Tyann Thomas had 11 kills, 7 digs, and 1 solo block.
Sophomores Alee Quint and Jessie Rehwald both had good performances. Quint had 36 set assists while Rehwald had 12 digs and 2 serving aces. Sophomore Jelena Jevtic had the game high in serving aces with 4 for the night. Senior Ashley Reid started and had 5 set assists in the first set.
The Lady Blues 2 seniors, Ashley Reid and Sashane Watson, were recognized after the second game of the match. The seniors were given a picture, flowers, and a goody bag from the team.
The Lady Blues next match is on the road on Friday, Oct. 30th against Fayetteville State at 6:00 p.m. in Fayetteville, NC.
