Euts Cruise to 3-0 Victory over Eagles

The Eutectic women's volleyball team picked up its second American Midwest Conference (AMC) win on Tuesday night with a straight-set victory (25-21, 25-17, 25-16) over the Williams Baptist University Eagles (Ark.) in the UHSP gymnasium.

The UHSP team is now 2-4 in the Conference, moving into seventh place in the rankings, as the Eagles fall to 10^th with three AMC matches left in the regular season.

WBU held a slight lead early in the first set, with the Eutectics playing a bit of catchup, tying the score six times before getting to 19-19. That's when the home team took advantage of two attacking errors, a service ace by Kathryn Trickey, and a kill by Amber Loo (assisted by Jenna Brinson) to finally take the lead, 23-19. The Purple and Gold would give up two more points before closing out the set with another kill by Loo (from Brinson) and an Eagle error to win 25-21.

After a Darlene Zediker attack gave the Euts the sideout for service in the second set, it was Kathryn Trickey at the line again who served the Euts to a 7-0 lead. Another six-point run during Jenna Brinson's serve got the UHSP team to a double-digit lead of 14-2. Despite a couple of four-point scoring runs by the Eagles, the deficit proved too difficult for the visitors to surmount. Hanna Burch sealed the 25-17 set victory for the Euts with a final kill set up by Brinson.

The score had already been tied seven times at 7-7 in the third set. But, two service aces from WBU's Faith Raymond pushed the Eagles to a small lead the Euts would then have to chase down. But, that's exactly what they did. Down 13-10, a kill by Sumanpreet Kaur (assisted by Brinson) sparked a six-point run by the Euts, who went up 16-13 and then refused to relinquish the lead. The UHSP team finished the set with an 8-1 scoring run, highlighted by kills from Macy Hendrix and Zediker (2), and aces from Kaur and Sydney Smith (2), to win the set at 25-16 and clinch the match, 3-0.

The Eutectics attacked at .263 in the match, recording 42 kills to the Eagles' 23. Amber Loo and Darlene Zediker both reached double figures in kills with 12 and 11, respectively, while Jenna Smith put up 36 assists. Sydney Smith notched three service aces and combined with Josie Barrand and Kathryn Trickey for 35 of UHSP's 58 digs.

Hope Raymond led the Eagles on offense with six kills, while Faith Raymond had 15 digs.

Now 3-24 overall, the Eutectics will stay in St. Louis for their next competition: a non-conference match at nearby NCAA Division III Fontbonne University on Friday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. The UHSP team will resume conference play on Saturday, celebrating senior day in the UHSP gymnasium at an 11 a.m. match against Central Baptist College (Ark.)