FRANKLIN, Ind. – The Earlham College volleyball team secured a spot in the 2023 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament with a 3-1 win over Franklin College on Saturday evening.
The Quakers improved to 10-17 (4-5 HCAC) while the Grizzlies fell to 8-18 (2-7 HCAC).
Caylee Brandes scored a career-high 20 kills for the Quakers while swinging at a .342 clip. On the other side,
Maria Young hit 14 kills with a .444 hitting percentage, and two aces. Anniyah Harrington also hit double digits with 13 kills.
Ava Walters tied her career high with 44 assists. Playing libero,
Madison Bizjak collected 15 digs.
As a team, the Quakers scored 66 kills with a .298 hitting percentage, and six aces.
Leading 5-4 in the first set, the Quakers scored a 9-3 run to lead 14-7. The Grizzlies scored a 4-0 run later in the set to close the gap to 18-14, but EC responded with four straight points.
After falling to an 8-6 deficit in the second set, Earlham scored four straight to take the lead. Franklin then responded with a 9-2 run, and led 17-12. The Quakers brought the score to 24-23 with a kill by
Lily Virgili, and the teams then battled back-and-forth. Franklin scored a kill, followed by a service ace to lead 26-25, and each side traded a kill. After Earlham tied the score at 28, Franklin hit three attack errors to end the frame.
Earlham scored five kills in its first six points of the third frame. In the frame, the Quakers scored 18 kills and hit seven errors. After the Quakers took a 21-15 lead, the Grizzlies scored a 10-2 run to stay alive in the match.
Earlham began the final set with five straight points, and scored at a 13-4 pace. Franklin surged with four straight points, but the Quakers remained in control with a 4-1 run. The Quakers ended the match with an attack error by the Grizzlies.
As the fifth seed in the HCAC Tournament Earlham is set to take on Manchester University at Manchester on Wednesday evening. The Quakers were defeated 3-0 by the Spartans in Druley Performance Gym earlier in the season.
