EC Indiana News

Volleyball sweeps Bluffton in HCAC Tournament

The Earlham College volleyball team swept Bluffton University 3-0 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Quarterfinal on Wednesday evening. The Quakers will move on to play against Mount St. Joseph on Saturday at 5 pm in Lexington, Ky. 

Liv Kyrk posted 12 kills with just two attack errors for a .417 attack percentage on the evening. Sydney Fuller and Aniyah Harrington followed with nine kills, and Fuller added a .438 percentage and three blocks. 

Erin Wagner dished out 34 assists on the evening, and had 91% of the assists for the Quakers. The senior also led the team in aces along with Akiko Tajima with two each. 

Jen Shamel led the back line with 14 digs. 

After taking an early 5-1 lead in the opening set, the Quakers allowed Bluffton to close the gap with an 8-7 score. Earlham took off after that, and controlled the set with a 12-3 run led by Fuller with three kills. The Quakers posted 15 kills and a .265 percentage as a team, and held the Beavers to six kills and seven errors in the frame. 

Earlham dominated the second set with 15 kills and two errors, while holding Bluffton to a .056 clip offensively. After taking a 4-3 lead, EC scored a 19-4 run with 12 kills and two aces. After a pair of substitutions, Bluffton strung together a 5-0 run while on set point, but dropped the set after a service error. 

Earlham jumped out again in set three to a 6-2 lead. The Quakers were held to just 13 kills in the set while Bluffton had its best offensive showing with nine kills and a .143 percentage. While leading 8-6, EC scored a 6-0 run to lead 14-6. The Quakers later scored a 5-1 run to lead 22-13. Bluffton once again had a run with Earlham on set point, scoring five straight to trail 24-20 before the match winning kill by Fuller. 

Earlham will travel to Lexington, Ky. over the weekend for the semifinals of the HCAC Tournament. The Quakers will take on Mount St. Joseph University on Saturday at 5 pm at Transylvania. The Lions got the better of Earlham in the regular season with a final score of 3-1. 
  

Original source can be found here.