DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The sixth-ranked Embry-Riddle volleyball team got 19 kills from
Jordan Holcomb on Saturday afternoon to lead the Eagles to their third consecutive Sun Conference Championship as they defeated St. Thomas, 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-15). The Eagles improve to 28-4 on the season while the Bobcats end the year at 16-7.
The Blue and Gold did not trail for a single point and were tied only twice (8-8 and 10-10 in set two) throughout the entire match. The Eagles hit a blistering .438 compared to STU's attack percentage of .127.
The first set started out with six Bobcat errors in the first seven points, three of which came via ERAU blocks. Embry-Riddle took advantage of the big early lead and never allowed St. Thomas to get back into the set, holding a six-point lead for the rest of the stanza. A kill from
Morgan Shattuck grew the margin to 10 points (16-6) and a kill from
Taylor Martin ended the set at 25-13.
The Eagles jumped out to a 6-2 lead early in the second set, but the Bobcats fought back to tie things at 8-8 after going on a quick 5-1 run. Back-to-back kills from Martin ended the run and a pair of kills from
Emily Jacobson put the Blue and Gold back in front for good, 13-10. Jacobson and
Erika Hinel combined for two straight blocks late in the set to put the Eagles on set point at 24-19 and Jacobson ended the set two points later with a kill, giving ERAU a 25-20 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Martin aced back-to-back serves early in the third set to put ERAU ahead 3-0 and the Eagles led the rest of the way. Holcomb put down four straight kills to cap a 9-1 run that pushed the lead to 16-7. Hinel scored a kill to move the score to 20-10 and Shattuck earned a solo block to give the Eagles championship point at 24-14. Two points later, Holcomb ended the tournament and secured a national tournament bid for Embry-Riddle with a thundering kill, closing the set at 25-15 and the match at 3-0.
Holcomb racked up a match-high 19 kills and hit a match-best .548 to lead the way offensively for ERAU. Martin added 11 kills, 13 digs and three service aces, while Shattuck and Jacobson each tallied six kills. Hinel led all players with five blocks while Jacobson added four blocks.
Hannah Gray picked up a match-leading 16 digs and
Adriana Vazquez tallied a match-high 38 assists to go along with seven digs.
Taylor Allgeier led the Bobcats with 10 kills but also committed 10 errors in 40 attacks. Nicole McInnis and Felicia Gonzales each totaled eight kills, though McInnis also hit .000 with eight attack errors. Angie Ardiles recorded a team-high 13 digs and Sydney Maynard collected a team-leading 28 assists.
The Eagles have earned The Sun Conference's automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship and will now await the announcement from the NAIA tomorrow afternoon to officially punch their ticket to Sioux City, Iowa for the NAIA National Championship Final Site. The final Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Poll and the 36 National Championship qualifiers will be announced tomorrow (Nov. 11) by 5 p.m. EST. If the Eagles, who were ranked sixth in last week's poll, remain in the top 11 in tomorrow's poll, they will receive a bye through the Opening Round and advance directly to the Final Site.
