With an HCAC Tournament home match on the near horizon, Saturday's trip to Berea could have easily become one of those dreaded "trap games" for Franklin women's volleyball.
This group of Grizzlies, though, tends to take care of business — and that was the case again in an efficient 25-15, 25-14, 25-21 road sweep of the Mountaineers.
"Berea plays an interesting style where they try to slow things down and wear you out in long rallies," Franklin coach
Dillon Taylor said. "I thought our kids handled that really well."
The Grizzlies (22-5, 7-2 HCAC) roared out to a 20-8 lead in the first set and were never seriously threatened, but the second proved to be more of a challenge early, with Berea closing to 12-11 on a Griz service error. The remainder of the set was all Franklin, though, with consecutive kills from
McKenzie Schroeder,
Leah Middleton and
Kaitlyn Lowes highlighting a decisive 10-1 run.
In the third, the visitors built a seemingly insurmountable 17-4 advantage behind three Middleton kills and then held on to weather a massive Mountaineer comeback bid that trimmed the deficit all the way to 21-20. A couple of attacking errors cooled the comeback bid, however, and Franklin closed the match out on kills by Middleton and
Lauren Kinsey.
Middleton finished with 11 kills for the Grizzlies, followed by Schroeder with nine and Kinsey with seven. Setters
Brionna Linkel and
Addie Smith handed out 16 assists apiece.
"We were able to find the middle later in the match, which was huge for us after Leah and Avery (Smith) started the match really strong," Taylor said. "I thought both of our right sides (Schroeder and Lowes) did an incredible job."
Defensively,
Mireily Colomba had six blocks, while
Lily Gena had 11 digs and
Avery Smith 10.
With the win, Franklin — which was winless in conference play just two years ago and picked to finish sixth this preseason — wound up tied for second in the final standings. Seeded third in the league tourney, the Grizzlies will host No. 6 seed Transylvania on Wednesday evening (Nov. 11, 7 p.m.).
Franklin, which is a perfect 10-0 at the Spurlock Center this season, defeated the Pioneers in four sets on Oct. 24.
"Really proud of this group, and excited to see what's left for them the rest of the season," Taylor said.
