RICHMOND, Ind. – The Earlham College volleyball team continued its HCAC season with a five-set thriller over Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Wednesday evening.
Addison Piatt played lights-out, scoring a career-high 23 kills with a .265 hitting percentage, 21 digs, and one assist. Anniyah Harrington scored 13 kills with 20 digs and four assists.
Caylee Brandes tallied 12 kills and one block.
Ava Walters played the full rotation, and dished out a career-high 52 assists with one block, one ace and five kills. Maddison Bizjak led the Quaker back line with 34 digs.
As a team, the Quakers swung at a .212 clip, scoring 65 kills with five aces and three blocks.
Tied at two sets each, the Quakers scored 11 kills with just three errors in the fifth and final set. Trailing 7-6, Earlham scored four straight points to lead the frame, and fended off a late surge from the Engineers to win the match with a 15-12 set score, ending with a massive kill from Harrington off the Engineer libero.
Earlham used a 7-1 run to take a 19-11 lead in the first set, and won the frame after hitting just three errors. The Quakers led set two 17-15 before Rose-Hulman scored a 5-0 run to take control of the set.
Earlham was held to a .058 hitting percentage in set three after scoring just eight kills with five errors. The Engineers opened the set on a 6-1 run, and after Earlham scored a 4-0 run to lead 20-16, the Engineers went on a 9-3 run to take the set win. The fourth set saw the Quakers hitting back above .200 with 16 kills and just four errors. Earlham scored six straight points to lead 18-11, and scored four straight to lead 23-15 en route to forcing a fifth set.
The Quakers host Mount St. Joseph University on Saturday at 2 pm for Senior Day in Druley Performance Gym. At 7-1, the Quakers currently hold the top spot in the HCAC standings, and have the tiebreaker over Transylvania who also sits at 7-1 in conference play. A win on Saturday would give Earlham its second HCAC Regular Season Championship, and home court advantage in the HCAC Tournament.
