Eagles Take Four Over Weekend

BECKLEY, W.Va. – The Eagles’ offense came alive over the weekend in a four-match sweep of Bluefield College, West Virginia Tech and Mountain State.  Asbury beat Tech twice as they didn’t drop a set all weekend.

Asbury has now won six straight matches after losing three of their first four to sit at 7-3 overall and are now 2-0 in the KIAC after defeating Mountain State on Saturday.  The Eagles hit an outstanding .433 in their four matches, including an incredible .514 on Friday against Bluefield.  In that match the Eagles tallied 42 kills and only four errors in 74 attempts.

Senior Lindsay Ibold led five players with 20 or more kills on the weekend with 40 in the four matches.  Ibold was in double-digits in all but Friday’s match against West Virginia Tech.  She hit .607 on the weekend and now ranks third in the NAIA with a .470 attack percentage on the year.  Brittney Rader (27), Allison Rehner (26), Dena Busse (23) and Sarah Sterling (20) all topped 20 kills on the weekend. 

Setting up the offense all weekend was the setter combination of Mackenzie Burke and Jessie Bartlow.  Burke totaled 79 assists in the four matches including 25 against Bluefield and 20 in each of the two matches on Saturday.  Burke also had seven service aces on the weekend.  Bartlow tallied 43 assists on the weekend including 13 against Mountain State. 

The defense combined for 18 solo blocks, 24 block assists, 173 digs and only eight reception errors.  Kelly Cole continues to shine as the team’s libero with 64 more digs on the weekend to give her 214 on the season, good for third in the NAIA.  Freshman Maddie Lewis dug 25 balls on the weekend as well.  Lewis also had eight service errors.  Senior Dena Busse had 19 total blocks on the weekend with seven coming against West Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Asbury will travel to Owensboro on Tuesday to face Kentucky Wesleyan and Brescia.