HUNTINGTON, Ind. – The HU volleyball team spent the weekend in Platt Arena for a pair of conference matches. Against Marian on Friday, the Foresters dropped three straight to the Knights, 25-9, 25-14, 25-15, before Spring Arbor battled their way to a 3-1 win over the hosts, 25-22, 20-25, 25-22, 25-23, on Saturday.
It was a slow start for Herber and crew on Friday. After scoring first, they managed just three points for a stretch that allowed the guests to build a ten-point advantage that set the tone for the rest of the night. Hitting errors proved HU's demise. The hosts finished with 18 to Marian's six.
Middles Trevyn Terry and Leah Carter carried the Foresters offensively. Terry finished with seven kills on 14 swings with just one blunder to post a .429 hitting percentage while Carter added five kills and a .357 hitting percentage. Morgan Robrock collected 21 assists and six digs.
Against the Knights, Coach Herber has this to say. "I'm disappointed in our play tonight. We didn't come strong out of the gate and spent the rest of the match trying to build momentum when we needed to start with it. I thought a bright spot tonight was how we ran our middles when the opportunity was there."
The Foresters keep things close with a much-improved Spring Arbor squad on Saturday. Just four games into league play, the Cougars (8-7, 2-16) have already matched their CL win total from last year. The afternoon saw long rallies between two evenly matched team. SAU relied on three hitters who accounted for 37 of their 47 kills with Kendall Bollenbacher racking up a game-high 17 kills.
HU, on the other hand, spread the wealth as five different Foresters finished with at least eight kills. Kortney Grimm paced Herber's crew with 13 kills. Maisyn Robrock and Carter also logged double-digit kills with 12 and 11 respectively. Morgan Robrock, who is best known for running the offense, put down nine in addition to dishing out 37 assists and tracking down 15 digs. Terry rounded out HU's offensive weapons by recording eight kills.
Carter was also busy at the net defensively having logged three solo blocks. Terry and Grimm each added 1.5 blocks. As a team, Huntington posted ten blocks to SAU's 5.5. HU's activity along the backline was also well-documented. In addition to Robrock's 15 digs, three others finished in double figures. Layla Meyer tallied 22 digs, Olivia Krahn posted 21 and Haley Kruse registered 12.
"While today was better in terms of our play, we still aren't where we want to be as a team," noted Herber. "We are going to keep working and getting better every day in the gym, and I know there is good ahead for this team.
"I thought we did a good job running our middles today and that Olivia Krahn played fantastic defense for us."
Huntington (10-5, 1-3) is back in Platt Arena Wednesday to host Mount Vernon at 7:00 p.m.
The Huntington University Foresters compete in 18 intercollegiate sports for men and women. In the past decade, Huntington has produced 154 NAIA All-America honors and 501 All-America Scholar Athlete honors. Huntington University is a comprehensive Christian college of the liberal arts offering graduate and undergraduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. U.S. News & World Report ranks Huntington among the best colleges in the Midwest.
