Eagles Suffer Through Tough Weekend in Ohio

RIO GRANDE, Ohio – Asbury’s women’s volleyball team labored through a tough weekend in Ohio, finishing third out of four teams in the Aces in August Classic hosted by Rio Grande University.  The home Red Storm took the title over Point Park University. 

The Eagles (2-3) opened with a tough five-setter against Point Park on Friday night.  The teams split the first four sets 22-25, 25-20, 26-28, 25-13 before Point Park took the finale 15-11.  Freshman Cat Starr (Lexington, Ky.) would lead the club with 15 kills in the opener and three other players would finish in double-digits, Lindsay Ibold (Cincinnati, Ohio) had 14 kills, Allison Rehner (Wilmore, Ky.) had 13 and Dena Busse (Holly Lake Ranch, Texas) had 11.  Mackenzie Burke had 34 assists in the match and Kelly Cole, who takes over the Libero position this year, had 33 digs.

Asbury would drop their second straight on Friday night to Rio Grande 25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 25-21, and would finish out round-robin play with a four-set victory over Union (Ky.) 23-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-22.  Heading into the semi-finals the Eagles would get a rematch with Rio and after dropping the first two sets 27-25 and 25-23 would rally back to force a fifth set by winning the third and fourth 25-14 and 25-16.  In the final set the Eagles would fall 15-6.  They would go on to beat Union again in the consolation game in four sets.

In the five-set match against Rio Grande sophomore setter Mackenzie Burke set a career-high with 43 assists.  She had three matches over the weekend with 30 or more assists, she didn’t have a single match last year with more than 26 and was the team leader with 697.  On the weekend she compiled 156 total assists.

Rehner also set a career-high with 16 kills in the second match against Union, besting her high from last year by three.  Rehner actually tied that mark of 13 in two other matches on the weekend, against Point Park and Saturday’s match against Rio Grande.  Rehner totaled 64 kills in the five matches and was named to that All-Tournament Team.

Senior middle blocker Lindsay Ibold also set a career-high with 16 kills on Saturday against Rio Grande.  Ibold tied her previous high with 14 against Point Park in the opener.  Her 56 kills over the weekend give her 833 for her career, moving her into 10th place all-time. 

The Eagles will open the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday August 31st as they also open KIAC play against Midway.  First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.