Franklin women's volleyball snapped a long series drought with its big win against DePauw last fall.
The Tigers were out for payback in Tuesday's return trip, and the Grizzlies were sent home on the losing end of a tight 22-25, 26-24, 25-20, 25-18 score.
"Very even matchup tonight that we came out on the wrong side of," Franklin coach
Dillon Taylor said. "We had multiple people step up in multiple spaces, and I was really proud of the fight we showed."
The Grizzlies (15-3) came out strong, using a 5-1 run to take control of a back-and-forth first set at 19-14. Freshmen
Bayleigh Moore and
Avery Smith delivered kills during that stretch, and after DePauw had crawled back within one at 23-22, Franklin used a
Leah Middleton kill and a Tiger attacking error to finish out the set.
Set two saw the Grizzlies build a 17-13 advantage before the home side rallied to tie it up at 19-19. Franklin eventually fought off two set points, with back-to-back Smith kills making it 24-24, but the Tigers were able to score the next two points to even the match.
Franklin jumped out to an 11-7 lead in the third, with
Skylyr Merriman delivering consecutive service aces to force a timeout, but DePauw came back with an extended 16-6 surge to take command. The Tigers then kept the momentum going by scoring 10 of the first 11 points of the fourth set.
At that point, it was the Grizzlies who went into comeback mode, creeping back to as close as 21-17 on the strength of three
McKenzie Schroeder kills. A pair of errors slowed the momentum, however, and DePauw scored four of the last five points to finish out the match.
As has become customary, Franklin had a very balanced effort across the board on Tuesday. Offensively, Smith had 11 kills,
Kaitlyn Lowes 10,
Lauren Kinsey nine and Middleton eight.
Brionna Linkel and
Addie Smith each handed out 20 assists. Kinsey added four blocks up front.
The back row was an all-hands-on-deck movement as well, with
Avery Smith and
Kim Busateri each pulling up 12 digs, followed by Linkel with 11,
Addie Smith with nine and
Lily Gena with eight.
Taylor saw contributions beyond the box score as well.
"
Grace Sailors won't show up a lot in the stat sheet," he said, "but we put her in the game in set four and she immediately helped slow down their best attacker. That's how this team is built — no matter who is in there, they can compete."
Next, Franklin will try to maintain its perfect home record when Anderson visits the Spurlock Center on Friday evening (5 p.m.) as part of Homecoming weekend.
