JACKSON, Miss. – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor volleyball team earned a pair of sweeps Friday in Jackson, beating Millsaps University and Birmingham-Southern to move to 3-0 on the season.
UMHB took a commanding three-set win over Millsaps to open competition. The Cru beat the Majors 25-14, 25-19 25-18 to earn win number two on the season.
Kayla Janikula led UMHB with 11 kills while
Sarah Grace Merry and
Hannah Frasca each added seven. UMHB hit 34 kills as a team and limited Millsaps to just 25.
Alli Pierce anchored UMHB's offense with 29 assists while
Alyssa Christiansen was the leader at the service line, recording three aces. Frasca was UMHB's defensive leader, totaling 17 digs in the match while
Maddie Gillispie added 12.
"Today was a really good step for us," Head Coach
Mark Pryor said. "Winning on the road is hard, and us learning to not only function on the road, but flourish, is a big step."
No. 19 Birmingham-Southern was UMHB's next opponent and the Cru took care of them in similar fashion, earning a 25-19, 25-18, 25-14 win over the Panthers. Janikula was UMHB's offensive leader again, totaling 10 kills in the match. Frasca added eight kills and Merry tacked on six as UMHB hit .200 in the match with 30 kills on 100 total attacks. Pierce anchored UMHB's offense with 24 assists. Defensively, Janikula had six solo blocks and one block assist. Gillispie was the Cru's back row leader with 11 digs while Frasca added 10. UMHB totaled 11 blocks, 47 digs and five service aces as a team.
"We played a very physical team in Birmingham Southern," Pryor added. It was a high-level match against a nationally-ranked opponent. We were very nervous at first, but as we got more and more calm, our defense, physicality and volleyball IQ really took over. It was a good win for us."
The Cru returns to Belhaven University for a pair of matches tomorrow. UMHB opens the day against Huntingdon at 10 a.m. before facing Centenary College at 2 p.m.
