The Keiser Seahawks swept Ave Maria 25-19, 25-17, 25-23 on Wednesday night at Tom Golisano Field House in Ave Maria, Fla., picking up a Sun Conference road win.
The Seahawks (10-11, 6-6 Sun) hit .167 for the match and finished with 11 service aces against the Gyrenes (9-10, 4-8 Sun).
Keiser jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opener on a Cece Worsham service ace and kills from Worsham and Addison Chapman. Ave Maria tied it at 7-7, but the Seahawks answered with a 7-1 run to take a 14-8 lead. Keiser pushed the margin to 21-10 before the Gyrenes won seven straight points to pull within 21-17. The Seahawks closed the set on a 4-2 run, and Worsham put away the final kill to win 25-19. Both teams hit .132 in the set.
The second set started with a burst from Mallory Dills, who served two aces in a 4-0 opening run. Ave Maria got as close as 5-4, but the Seahawks never trailed in the set. Keiser hit .200 (nine kills, three errors, 30 attempts) while Ave Maria hit .000 (10 kills, 10 errors, 33 attempts). Rebecca Rosculet closed it out with a service ace for a 25-17 win.
The third set was the closest of the match. Ave Maria led 3-1 early, and the teams were tied nine times, the last at 10-10. Keiser took an 11-10 lead on a Chapman kill and led the rest of the way, building leads of 18-14 and 23-18. The Gyrenes won five of the next six points to pull within 24-23, but after a Keiser timeout, Worsham's block ended the match.
Keiser finished with a .167 hitting percentage (34 kills, 14 errors, 120 attempts) to Ave Maria's .132 (38 kills, 22 errors, 121 attempts). The Seahawks held advantages in service aces (11-2) and blocks (7.0-4.0), with three solo blocks, eight block assists and no block errors. Ave Maria led in digs (66-54) and assists (36-30), and committed 11 reception errors to Keiser's two.
Worsham led Keiser with 14 kills, hit .278 and added a double-double with 12 digs. She also had three aces, one solo block and three block assists. Emma Friese added six kills, and Chapman had five kills without an error (.455). Makenzi Bennett had three kills, eight digs and two aces, and Ana Inés Liboreiro had two kills, a solo block and three block assists. Dills dished out a team-high 16 assists to go with two aces and nine digs, and Amie Molina added 11 assists. Reese Jones had eight digs and two aces, and Rosculet had two aces.
Ave Maria was led by Elle Malczewski, who had eight kills and hit .294, and Emily Child, who also had eight kills. Greta Heiney added seven kills (.294). Ryan Getz had a match-high 19 digs, Maylis Detar had 18 digs, and Caroline Myers had 16 assists and 11 digs. Megan Klockner added 12 assists.
Up next, the Seahawks will travel to Miami Gardens to take on the Florida Memorial Lions.
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