FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. Methodist's women's volleyball team celebrated a strong outing in the Riddle Center Wednesday evening, taking three straight from visiting Salem College to earn a 3-0 USA South Athletic Conference victory in just its second home appearance of the season.
Brittany Ter Meer was the only player in the match to register double-digits in kills, pounding out 12 on a night in which she posted a match-best .346 attack percentage.
JUST THE FACTS
Final score: Methodist def. Salem, 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-19)
Records: Methodist 10-6 overall (4-4 USA South), Salem 8-8 (6-3)
Location: Riddle Center; Fayetteville, N.C.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Four ties and three lead changes were deceiving statistics early in the opening set as Methodist pulled away from the Spirits when the score was 10-10 and never looked back.
- The only Salem lead in the second set was at 1-0 and the only lead change in the game was at 1-1 when the Monarchs inched ahead for good on a Spirits attacking error.
- Methodist built a sizable lead in the set, leading by a score of 20-10 late, but Salem was able to battle back to within four (23-19) only to have a pair of kills from Kaeli Ryan cement the set win for the Monarchs.
- The longest run of the set for the home team was a 5-0 run during an Alyssa Coffey serving stint in the middle of the set that led to the eventual 10-point bulge.
- Similarly, the third and deciding set saw only an early lead for the Spirits who surrendered that advantage at 3-3 with a Ter Meer kill off a Lili Henry set.
- That kill from Ter Meer was near the beginning of a 6-0 run, with Megan Andrews serving, that brought the Monarchs back from a 3-1 deficit.
- The third set would play tighter than the second with Spirits continually breaking down four- and five-point deficits into only two or three points.
- At 21-18, Methodist finally turned the lights out on Salem by scoring four of the final points of the match with Jamie Jones flipping the switch for the last point.
BOX POINTS
- Ter Meer's 12 kills and two solo blocks pushed the senior to a match-best 14.0 points.
- Henry supplied 29 set assists to prime an attack that recorded a 41-26 advantage in total kills.
- The triumvirate of Coffey, Riley Adair and Andrews combined to come up with 48 of the team's 69 digs. Coffey led all players with 21, Adair's 17 were eclipsed only by Coffey, while Andrews come up off the floor with 10.
- Methodist might have only notched four service aces in the match -- averaging nearly seven per match entering the night -- but they also only surrendered one ace to Salem servers. The Monarchs also gave up just four points on service errors.
SPIRIT TALK
- Taylor Moulton led Salem in both digs (15) and kills (8).
- The attack ran through Dixie Fulk and Hannah Delcamp who served up 11 and 9 set assists, respectively.
NEXT UP
- Methodist heads to Danville, Virginia, for a conference tri-match Saturday at Averett University. The Monarchs take on N.C. Wesleyan in the middle match before squaring off against the hosts in the tri-match finale.
- The Spirits are at Mary Baldwin College Saturday in a USA South tri-match with the host school and William Peace University.
