FULTON,Mo. - The Westminster volleyball team came back from a 0-2 set deficit to beat Greenville 3-2 in five sets. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five games and improve to 8-6 on the season. Westminster is now in first place in the SLIAC with a 6-1 conference record.
The Blue Jays scored first in the first set off an attack error by Greenville. The Panthers scored two of the next three points before Westminster scored on kills by Eryka Wanyonyi and Sarah Rivers to go up 4-3. Greenville regained the lead on a service ace to go up 5-4 and held on to the lead for the rest of the set to win 25-18.
Greenville opened with a four point rally to take a 4-0 lead in the second set. The Blue Jays stopped the rally on a Wanyonyi kill to bring the score to 4-1. After giving up a point on their corresponding serve Westminster cut the lead to 5-4 with a pair of kills. The lead changed multiple times after that until Greenville used a five point rally to go up 22-17. The Panthers went on to win the set 25-19.
In the third set the Blue Jays and Panthers battled back-and-forth for the majority of the set. Westminster was able stay alive thanks to strong performances from Wanyonyi and Ashley Kistaitis and squeaked out a 25-23 victory in the set. The Blue Jays recorded three service aces in the set.
Westminster held leads of 11-4 and 19-15 in the fourth set but each time the Panthers battled back to tie the score. Greenville took a 23-22 lead late in set before the Blue Jays responded with kills from Wanyonyi and Kistaitis. With the game tied at 24-24 Westminster got clutch kills from Kistaitis and Allie Kennebeck to win the set 26-24 and tie the match at 2-2.
The teams traded points in the tiebreaker set before Westminster rallied for three points to take a 7-4 lead. The Blue Jays never looked back and Wanyonyi ended the set with a kill to give Westminster a 15-12 victory in the set and a 3-2 match win.
Wanyonyi put together an impressive game, leading the Blue Jays with 24 kills and tying Erica Schrader for the most digs with 21. Kistaitis also recorded a double-double for Westminster with 18 kills and 16 digs. Teresa Becker led all players with 52 assists and also added 15 digs. Allie Kennebeck was the fifth Blue Jay to reach double-digit dig totals in the match, finishing with 15. Westminster recorded nine service aces, three of which came from Natalie Needy.
The Blue Jays play again Tuesday on the road at Iowa Wesleyan. The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
