HAMMOND, Ind. -- The Wayne State University volleyball team (11-10 overall) went 3-0 at the Midwest Region Crossover for the first time in 15 years on Saturday afternoon. The Green and Gold swept Lake Erie (8-12 overall) for their season-long fourth-straight victory and moved above the .500 mark overall for the first time since improving to 2-1 back on August 29, day two of the Warrior Invitational.
"We saw some growth and improvement from our team this weekend," said head coach Tim Kotk. "There were some excellent offensive performances from Katie (Smith), Lauren (Essenpreis) and Kyleigh (Weck). We will need them to continue this upward trend to help us get to where we think we can be. But im proud of our work, and the way we represented Warrior Nation."
Match One - Wayne State 3, Lake Erie 0
HOW IT HAPPENED (-22, -22, -11)
- Wayne State collected its fifth-best hitting percentage of the season at .336 -- 51 kills, 15 errors and 107 total attacks.
- Lake Erie hit .152 for the match with 32 kills and 16 mishaps on 105 attempts.
- The Warriors were at their most efficient in the third set at .500 (17-3-28).
- The Storm started at their best at .214 (14-5-42) in the first.
- WSU dominated five of the six major head-to-head categories.
- That included points (60-40), kills (51-32), service aces (4-2), assists (49-32), and digs (48-33).
- The one category where LEC bested its opponent was total blocks (6-5).
- Individually,
Lauren Essenpreis may have been the best player in the match.
- Essenpreis racked up a match/career-high 16 kills to go with a team-best 12 digs.
- While hitting .344, the sophomore secured a third-straight double-double for the first time in her career.
- She was one of three Warriors with double-digit kills, the other two being
Katie Smith (15, .464) and
Kyleigh Weck (11, .409).
- Weck's team-high hitting percentage is up to .351 for the fall.
- Staying on offense,
Kayla Dulgar dished out 42 assists and a pair of aces.
- Switching over to defense,
Giselle Burlingame was right on the heels of Essenpreis with 11 digs of her own.
- Above the net, Weck assisted on four blocks while
Nicole Dupre also had four stops (one solo).
LEADING THE WARRIORS
UP NEXT
Wayne State will return home on Tuesday, Oct. 20 for its penultimate home match of the regular season. The Warriors will host Davenport for the annual Pink Out match inside the Matthaei with the opening serve slated for 7 p.m.
