Volleyball Upends Wartburg for First Time Since 2004
Sep 19, 2018
DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque volleyball team beat the Wartburg College for the first time since 2004 on Wednesday night, defeating the Knights, 3-1 (23-25,25-22,25-20,25-10).
Wartburg opened the match with the serve but UD grabbed the first two points of the opening set before Wartburg rattled off the next six before a UD timeout. The Spartans were able to slowly cut a six point deficit to one at 17-16 and finally evened it all up at 18 and then again at 23 before Wartburg scored the last two points to take the opening the set, 25-23.
Much like the first set, the Knights built up a four point lead and the Spartan deficit stayed between two and two and four for a majority of the set. The Spartans finally found their groove late and pulled even with the Knights at 21-21. UD would then score four of the next five points, all behind the serve of Grace Strawser, to take the second set 25-22 and even the match at one set apiece
The Spartans were finally the ones to jump out to the big lead in the third set, carrying the momentum over from the end of the second set and getting ahead 6-1. The Knights worked their way back into it, cutting it to as little as one point after trailing by as many as seven, but UD never let Wartburg tie it up and pulled way to take set three, 25-20. UD then made sure the match would not head into a fifth and final set early on in the fourth as they jumped all over the Knights and never let up and cruised to a 25-10 set win to close out the match.
The UD attack got strong as the match went on. After hitting -.020 in the opening set loss the Spartans improved every set after. Hitting .152, .217 and closed the match with a .297 in the fourth set. Three different Spartans reached double figures in the kills column against the Knights, led by Rylee Andresen with 13. Kendra Witte tacked on 12 and Kara Wright finished with 10 kills of her own. While the offense may have not been at top form all match, the UD defense was, blocking 11 Knight attack attempts and holding Wartburg to a measly .102 hitting percentage.
After having their last seven games within the city limits of Dubuque, the Spartans hit the road again this weekend, traveling to Marian University on Friday night with the match beginning at 7:00 p.m.
