Ravens Volleyball bounced back in a big way Wednesday evening.
Coming off a five-set loss a week ago, the (RV) Ravens shook off a first set loss Wednesday and defeated the (RV) Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes, 3-1.
With a 2-1 lead, the Ravens closed out the match with a thrilling win in the fourth set. The Coyotes jumped out to an 8-1 lead but the Ravens began slowly chipping away at the deficit. A 10-5 Ravens run forced a KWU timeout as their lead was chopped to 13-11. Later, Winny Harris had back-to-back kills to tie the set at 16-16. Another Harris kill gave the Ravens a 19-18 lead.
The teams traded points and were tied 22-22, but a KWU error and an ace by Haley Cahill set up Regan Bruggeman with the match-winning kill.
The Ravens fell behind the Coyotes quickly in the opening set of the evening, 7-1, and never fully recovered. After a timeout, the Ravens scored 4-straight points to close the gap but KWU kept the Ravens from ever leveling the score in the opening set, winning 25-19.
The Ravens leveled the match, 1-1, with a 25-22 second-set win. It seemed like the Ravens were rolling with a 19-13 lead but after the Coyotes called timeout, the visitors went on a 9-2 run to take a 22-21 lead. After the Ravens scored to even the set, Cahill recorded an ace to put the Ravens back in front, then back-to-back blocks gave the Ravens the set win.
The Ravens took a 2-1 advantage in the match with a third set that was similar to the second set. The Ravens built a strong 22-15 lead only for KWU to fight back and close the gap. However, the Ravens maintained their lead to close out a 25-21 win. The Ravens had an attack percentage of .273 in the third set after posting .024 and .238 attack percentages in the opening two sets.
The Ravens closed things out with a .271 attack percentage in the fourth and final set and closed out the match at .201.
Hokulani Sagapolu had 16 kills to lead the team, while Bruggeman had 13 and Mahala Sewell recorded 12. Cahill had 27 assists to go along with 3 aces, and Harris had 6 kills, 5 block assists and a solo block.
The Ravens (7-3) take to the road for a pair of non-conference games on Saturday, Sept. 14 before returning home to begin Heart of America Conference play at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20.
