ST. LOUIS – The Centre volleyball team started off its 2021 season in auspicious fashion with a doubleheader at Washington University. The Colonels defeated no. 13 UT-Dallas in straight sets before fending off the Lewis & Clark Pioneers in an epic five-set thriller. With the wins, the vastly improved Colonels equaled the win total of last year's pandemic-shortened season in one night.
GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
- Against the 13th-ranked Comets, the Colonels battled back and forth in a mistake-filled opening set. Ultimately it was Centre who committed the fewest mistakes as Madi Barron provided ten digs in a 25-20 victory.
- In the second set, Centre scored the first five points of the frame and never looked back as they scored the final six points of the set and cruised to a 25-14 win.
- UTD played much better in the third set and held a small lead over the Colonels for a majority of it, but Centre slowly chipped away at the deficit and forced the Comets into extra points, where an ace by Brooke Palmer sealed a 26-24 victory and the match.
GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
- The opening set between the Colonels and Pioneers was tightly contested the whole way, with neither team leading by more than four points. With the score tied at 24-24, Katie Hall came through with a clutch kill and an L&C error on the next play gave Centre a 26-24 win.
- The Pioneers grabbed the early lead in the second set and while they never led by more than six, they held off a hard-charging Centre run and won 25-21.
- In the third set, Centre used an early 5-0 run to take the first lead, and then Hall went on a run of a block and five kills on six consecutive plays to help blow the set open as Centre won by a score of 25-15.
- Centre led 14-12 midway through the fourth set, but the Pioneers responded with 10 of the next 12 points and eventually pushed the match to the limit with a 25-19 win.
- The fifth set saw Centre grab the early lead and while Lewis & Clark cut that deficit to a single point, the Colonels refused to let them over the hump and won by a score of 15-10.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORES
- Hall shattered her previous career high with 18 kills against Lewis & Clark with a fantastic hitting percentage of .324.
- Palmer led a balanced scoring effort for Centre against UTD with seven kills, and then followed that up with a career high 12 kills in game 2.
- Alice Rodgerson finished with 11 kills against the Pioneers, giving Centre three players to record double digit kills in game 2.
- Meredith Phillips finished with a game high 20 assists and four of Centre's nine aces against the Comets. Against the Pioneers, she finished with 47 assists and 11 digs.
- Barron led all players in game 1 with 16 digs, with Lily Hendricks adding 13 for the Colonels.
- Against L&C, Barron again paced the Colonels with 26 digs, with Palmer, Hendricks, Phillips and rookie June Padilla all recording double digit digs as well.
NEXT UP
Centre volleyball will return to play on Saturday with two more games in St. Louis as the Colonels face Carroll and Webster.
