Fulton, MO, 9/30/21 – The Westminster College volleyball team came into tonight's SLIAC matchup with the Blackburn College Beavers riding the high of a 3-0 road win this past Tuesday. The Blue Jays would only add to their momentum on Thursday night in Historic Gym as they would be victorious in straight sets 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 25-13) as they left no doubt in evening their SLIAC record at 1-1.
The first set on the night found the Beavers and the Blue Jays tied up 6-6 early. The Blue Jays would win seven of the next nine points to go up 13-8. Key in that run was two kills by Eryka Wanyoni (Columbia, MO / Hickman), a kill by Emma Geier (Versailles, MO / Morgan R-II) and a kill by Claire Whitehouse (St. Louis, MO / Parkway Central). The Blue Jays would keep the Beavers at arm's length the rest of the way. Geier would then smash a final kill and the Jays would win the first set 25-20.
Set number two opened up with the Blue Jays putting on a show as they raced forward to a 12-2 lead. A couple kills each by Whitehouse and Wanyonyi along with a slew of Beaver errors lead the Jays to the big lead. They would cruise the rest of the way to a 25-11 set two victory and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Set number three opened with the Beavers hanging tough with the Jays, as Blackburn would trail just 14-10. The Blue Jays would play with some passion once again and would take a bigger lead running off four straight points to take a commanding a 18-10 lead. A pair of Blackburn errors and a pair of Wanyonyi kills paced the Jays. The Blue Jays would end the match with three straight points and Haley Menke would send us all home with a kill on match point to win the set 25-13 and sweep the match 3-0.
Wanyonyi would pace the offense with 12 kills. She was followed by Haley Menke (O'Fallon, MO / Fort Zumwalt South) with ten, Whitehouse and Geier followed with nine kills each. Gretchen Durbala (Burlington, IA /Burlington) would lead the team with 37 assists. Whitehouse and Geier would hit an incredible .615 and .750 leading Menke .318 and Wanyonyi at .310 as four players with hitting percentages over .300. Erica Schrader paced the defense with seven digs along with Wanyonyi and Sophia Reimer (St. Charles, MO / Lutheran) who each also had seven digs. Wanyonyi accounted for five service aces.
The Blue Jays are back in action tomorrow on Friday October 1st when they will travel to Spalding University in Louisville, KY. The game is scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. CST (Fulton Time) or 6:00 p.m. EST (Louisville Time) kick off.
