BEREA, Ky. – Maryville took another step forward in working to decipher exactly how this volleyball season is going to play out.
The Scots waltzed into Berea's Seabury Center on Tuesday night and emerged with a 3-0 victory against the host Mountaineers. Maryville won going away by the scores of 25-23, 25-21 and 25-15, improving to 7-8 overall and 2-1 in the CCS.
"We fought through some early nerves, but once we settled, we found our groove and played our game," Maryville interim head coach
Brienna Laskowski said. "
Landry Frisch was key for us tonight, as well as our scrappy defense."
Frisch finished with 14 kills for a three-set personal high. She committed just two errors and posted a .480 attack percentage, helping the Scots hit .269 as a team. Front-line mate
Kenzie Brewster hit at a .357 clip, recording five kills and zero errors on 14 attacks. It was Brewster's second match in the last three with zero errors. She had 11 kills for a .733 attack percentage Saturday against Belhaven.
The Scots won at a place where just a year ago amid a 13-3 conference season, they suffered a 3-0 defeat. And Saturday, it was a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Piedmont.
Were those results the spark that led to Tuesday night's resounding victory?
"We really tried not to focus on past matches or anything we did last season," Laskowski said. "Our mindset has been to keep moving forward and to get better with each opportunity. The team really embraced that tonight, and it undoubtedly helped us pull out a solid win."
Scots Played Better as Night Progressed
The opening set was tight throughout, with six ties. Berea scored the first four points, but Maryville drew level at 7-7. It was 13-13 when Brewster struck for a kill that handed Maryville the lead for keeps. That doesn't mean it was a cake walk, as the Scots never led by more than three at 23-20.
Addie Smith's kill handed Maryville its 24th point, and Berea finished with an error for a 25-23 Scots win.
In Set 2, after some early back and forth, Maryville pulled ahead 12-5 and then 16-8 as Berea was its own worst enemy. But the home side bounced back and scored 12 of the next 16 points to forge a deadlock at 20-all. Frisch had a kill and then
Dakota Vaiese a service ace for a two-point lead. Maryville scored three of the last four points on kills by
Addie Smith, Brewster and
Cailin Mastropasqua for a 25-21 victory.
Berea's only lead in the third set was 1-0, and the only tie was 1-1. After that, the Scots played their most complete set. The Maryville defense held Berea to just six kills against six errors, while the Scots pounded out 14 kills of their own. Frisch had five of those, including two in a row that pushed the Scots in front 12-5. It was easy sledding from there as Maryville posted the 25-15 win.
Vaiese led the Scots with 13 assists and added a dozen digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Smith pitched in with 12 assists and
Ally Sokolow compiled 11 digs.
The Scots are back into CCS action Saturday in Montgomery, Alabama. Maryville faces host Huntingdon in a noon Central time start before taking on Wesleyan at 2 p.m. Central.
The next home match is Oct. 17 against Berea in a 6 p.m. start.
