SPOKANE, Wash. – The Gonzaga volleyball team defeating visiting Ball State in three sets (25-19, 25-20, 25-21) Saturday morning to earn its first home victory of the 2019 season. The Bulldogs improved to 4-1 on the season with the win.
"We represented ourselves well this morning," head volleyball coach
Diane Nelson said. "The key was getting our serve receive dialed in and staying aggressive."
Gonzaga (4-1) was led by junior
Chapin Gray with 14 kills off 28 attempts to hit at a .357 clip while senior
Jenna Kuehn added a match-high 35 assists, four digs and five kills hitting .556. Freshman
Alisa Kim added a match-high 15 digs.
Junior
Sarah Penner started things early for the Zags, connecting on an assist from Kuehn for the match's first point. Kuehn followed it up with a service ace to give Gonzaga the early 2-0 lead. A 7-2 Zag run midway through the first set gave GU a comfortable six-point lead (16-10); seven rallies later the Bulldogs still held a six-point advantage (19-13). Yet three-straight GU attacking errors gave Ball State (3-3) some life until two Cardinal attacking errors put GU back in front by five (21-16). Gonzaga capitalized, finishing the set with two-straight kills from Gray to secure the 25-19 first set win.
Ball State claimed the early advantage to start the second set, capitalizing on three GU errors for the early 4-2 advantage. But two Zags kills, courtesy of
Payton Mack and
Zoe Thiros, coupled with a service ace from Kim tied the set six-all. That was the first of six tied scores in the match, the final tie coming at 16-all following a kill from Ball State's Natalie Risi. Two Cardinals errors and an ace from sophomore
Kennedy Croft forced a timeout and gave the Zags a 19-16 edge. GU outscored Ball State 6-4 coming out of the timeout to claim the 25-20 second set win.
The third set also featured back-and-forth play with five ties and three lead changes, but Gonzaga was efficient on its attack, finishing with 15 kills hitting at a .387 clip. Gray led the way in the final set with four kills, and Penner added three kills hitting .429 to go along with two solo blocks and a dig. The Bulldogs held a one-point advantage (19-18) when Gray and Penner connected for back-to-back kills. That, combined with two back-to-back Ball State errors put GU in front by five (23-18). Gonzaga completed the sweep with a 25-21 third set victory.
Ball State was led by Marie Plitt with 10 kills off 14 attempts hitting .643 while Esther Grussing added a team-high 19 assists. The Cardinals finished the Gonzaga Invitational with a 2-1 overall record, picking up wins over Grand Canyon in five sets while sweeping Montana.
Gonzaga concludes the Gonzaga Invitational this evening (Saturday, Sept. 7) against Montana at 6 p.m. inside the Martin Centre.
