No. 19 Taylor Dominates RV Cougars in Three-Set Sweep

Volleyball | Sat, Sep. 17, 2022 at 5:30 PM
| by Jake Chipka

UPLAND, Ind. – For the second day in a row, the No. 19 Taylor volleyball team (15-3, 4-0 CL) won in three sets against a Crossroads-League foe, Saturday’s victim being the Cougars of RV Mount Vernon Nazarne (14-3, 1-3 CL).

Offensively and defensively, the Trojans controlled the flow of the game, posting a team hitting percentage of .308 and racking up 12.0 total team blocks. Sophomore, middle hitter, Grace Ieremia, was especially dominant in this way, totaling nine blocks for the second time this season.

Ieremia continues to rank second in the Crossroads League with an average of 1.22 blocks-per-set, now just .04 points behind the league-leader.

Meanwhile, after a mortal performance on Friday, Ryan Czerniak returned to her superhuman ways on Saturday, striking 12 kills in tandem with a single error en route to a .478 hitting percentage for the match.

Anna Frey contributed 10 kills herself, while Arlanda Faulkner and Jaylynn Dunsmore combined for 15 more.

Paving the way for Taylor’s brigade of kills was senior setter, Kacy Bragg, who posted 35 assists in TU’s three-set sweep of Mount Vernon Nazarene. Bragg now has a league-leading 697 assists on the season and 3,437 for her career, which sits just five away from surpassing Haley Harrell for seventh all-time in program history.

Bragg also recorded 10 digs and sent back five blocks, one more than Frey’s four. Thanks in large part to the numerous team blocks, Taylor limited the Cougar team hitting percentage to a mere .038, a significant gap from Taylor’s sharp percentage of .308.

The lone moment when it appeared Mount Vernon Nazarene had Taylor on the ropes came in the second set, when the Cougars crafted a 20-18 lead. After a strategic timeout, however, Taylor mounted its comeback, drawing even while the score read 23-23. At that point, MVNU appeared to have the set in its grasp, going up 24-23 and then again 25-24. Taylor finished the set with three-consecutive points, though, the final two each coming in the wake of Bragg-Ieremia assisted blocks.

After that second-set win, Taylor capitalized on a deflated Cougar spirit and cruised to a 25-11 third set win and its fourth match-sweep in a row.

No. 19 Taylor (15-3, 4-0 CL) is back in action on Wednesday, September 21, when the Trojans travel to take on Saint Francis (8-7, 2-1 CL) at 7:00 pm ET.