Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4 Franklin College women's volleyball came into its home invitational this weekend on a roll. Nothing that happened in any of their four matches on Friday or Saturday slowed that momentum one bit.

The Grizzlies extended their early-season winning streak to eight — the last five of those at the Spurlock Center — with a quartet of three-set sweeps, defeating Blackburn and Alma on Friday and polishing off Kenyon and Eureka on Saturday.

"Really proud of our group this weekend," Griz coach Dillon Taylor said. "We talked all week about defending our home court with five matches, and walking out with five sweeps is a really big deal."

Friday saw the Griz (8-1) open with a 23-6 blitz in the first set against Blackburn, setting the tone for a 25-8, 25-18, 25-12 rout. Franklin hit .378 as a team in the match, led by an 11-kill effort from Leah Middleton, 10 kills from Lauren Kinsey and nine from Kaitlyn Lowes. Freshman Addie Smith handed out 26 assists.

Against Alma, the Grizzlies started out similarly strong, taking another big first-set lead en route to a 25-10, 25-18, 25-12 victory. Middleton again posted 11 kills and chipped in four blocks, while Mireily Colomba added a career-best nine kills and three blocks. McKenzie Schroeder contributed eight kills and Kinsey had six blocks at the net. Brionna Linkel finished with 21 assists.

"Lauren and Miry continue to dominated the net," Taylor said of Kinsey and Colomba. "It's a no-fly zone a lot of the time in there."

Kim Busateri paced the back row on Friday with 29 digs in all, while Lily Gena served up five aces on the day.

On Saturday, Franklin was a bit slower out of the gate but still got it together by the end of each set to finish off Kenyon 25-17, 25-17, 25-12. Lowes led a balanced attack with 11 kills, followed by Middleton with eight and Schroeder and Avery Smith with seven each.

Addie Smith had eight of the 14 Griz aces in the win, with Gena adding three more. Schroeder and Colomba had four blocks apiece.

Franklin finished off the tourney with a 25-9, 25-13, 25-8 shellacking of Eureka. The Grizzlies, who wound up with a stellar hitting percentage of .434 in the match, got 10 kills from Schroeder and nine each from Avery Smith and Middleton. Linkel had 21 assists and matched Gena and Avery Smith with three service aces. Busateri had a dozen digs to finish with 53 for the weekend.

Franklin served 42 aces over the four matches, with Gena accounting for 11 of those.

Middleton, Schroeder and Colomba made the all-tournament team, but the Grizzlies got contributions up and down the roster all weekend.

"I think it's just a testament to the depth that we've talked about all year long," Taylor said.

"I think we got better this weekend, and now we continue to go get pushed every week."

This week's push will come on the road, as the Grizzlies play at Spalding on Wednesday before traveling for three matches in Illinois on the weekend.