The Murray State volleyball team made it five straight wins Saturday afternoon at Eastern Kentucky as the Racers swept the Colonels in straight sets, 25-22, 27-25 and 25-22. The win assures the Racers of at least the No. 3 seed in next week’s OVC Tournament and also gives MSU its fourth consecutive 20-win season, extending the program record.
The Racers (20-8, 12-4 OVC) used a balanced attack offensively in the win as Rachel Giustino was the only Racer with double-figure kills as she notched a team-best 12 on the day. Meanwhile, four Racers all recorded nine kills each in Dacia Brown, Rachel Holthaus, Megan Lindsay and Courtney Radle. Holthaus and Brown hit .350 and .304, respectively in the sweep.
For the match, MSU hit .188 while the Colonels (12-18, 10-6 OVC) hit .167. EKU did out-block the Racers 5-2 on the day but MSU had a 4-1 edge in service aces and also committed one fewer serving error (4-3).
Callie Anderton paced the offense as she recorded a match-high 39 assists and tied a career-high with 15 digs. Becca Fernandez led the way with 22 digs in the victory while Holthaus added 10 and Giustino chipped in with nine.
Saturday was the regular season finale for the Racers as they now travel to Clarksville, Tenn., for the OVC Tournament beginning Thursday. If MSU stays as the No. 3 seed, it would play the first match of the tournament at 11 a.m. In order to move up to the second seed, the Racers would need a loss Saturday night by SIU Edwardsville and it would need to be in a sweep due to tiebreaker rules.
Kevin DeVries
