Hawks Open Millsaps Invitational With 3-1 Win Over Dallas

JACKSON Miss.- Looking to add to their winning ways this week, Huntingdon Volleyball hit the road and traveled to Jackson, Mississippi today to kick off the Millsaps Invitational hosted on the campuses of Millsaps College and Belhaven University, kicking things off with a match against the University of Dallas. 

The Hawks opened up the match with consecutive set victories to take a 2-0 lead before dropping the third. Catching a second win however, Huntingdon rallied late in the fourth set to walk away with a 3-1 victory. 

As mentioned, the Hawks success started early with a 25-23 opening set victory. Huntingdon saw their best hitting percentage for the match early on, recording 12 kills to go with just two errors, leading to a percentage of 0.357. Making the most of errors commited by the Crusaders, Huntingdon captured a 5-2 lead early, which grew to 9-4 off a kill by Morgan Suggs. Dallas rallied though, evening things at 13, and again at 20, to remain in contention. Coming down the stretch however, A trio of Sara Cochran, Olivia Goodrich, and Aly Harris sparked the Huntingdon attack, carrying the Hawks to a 25-20 set one win. 

The Hawks winning ways continued into the second set, as Huntingdon led from end-to-end to take set two 25-17. In a similar tale to the first set, Dallas errors and Morgan Suggs kills made way to a 8-3 lead for the Hawks. Several serves later, the Hawks saw their lead reach as much as nine(14-5) following a kill from Molly Wilson. Dallas made a push late to bring the deficit to eight ar 20-12, but more errors for the Crusaders allowed for Huntingdon to stay in control, moving ahead 2-0 with the 25-17 set win. 

Dallas found new life in the third set, defeating Huntingdon 25-20 to stay alive. A match-low 7 kills for the Hawks combined with the Crusaders best offensive set(15 kills with 5 errors) proved to be too much for Huntingdon to overcome as the Crusaders forced a fourth set. 

To put things away, the Hawks caught fire in the fourth set, recording a match-high 14 kills en route to a 25-11 set victory. Huntingdon was excellent throughout the set in all facets of the game, setting their match high in kills while limiting Dallas to just one of their own. A 6-0 run with kills from A'Kirra McElveen, Suggs, and Harris closed things out and moved the Hawks to 7-4 on the year. 

Hawk Top Performers

• #6 Lily VanDyke- 5 kills, 5 digs
• #9 Aly Harris- 9 kills, 2 digs
• #5 Sara Cochran-8 kills, 3 digs
• #28 Morgan Suggs- 13 kills, 7 digs

The Hawks return to action in Jackson tomorrow, September 13th, with matches against McMurry and Centenary at 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM.