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| McKenna Gassman |
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| Ksenia Klue |
WOOSTER, Ohio – Ksenia Klue recorded a match-high 19 kills becoming the first student-athlete on The College of Wooster volleyball team to surpass 265 kills in back-to-back seasons since alumna KateLynn Riley did so in 2008 and 2009, and the senior and her Fighting Scot teammates logged a pair of Wednesday night wins, including a 21-25, 25-15, 25-18, 25-18 North Coast Athletic Conference victory over Allegheny to cap the action at Timken Gymnasium.
Klue, who recorded a team-high 272 kills last year, is four shy of that mark with five regular-season matches remaining. In fact, Klue's current haul is tied for the sixth-most in a single season since the scoring format changed in 2008, and it currently leads the NCAC.
Wooster (14-9, 2-2 NCAC) rallied back to tie the first set of the nightcap up at 13 thanks to a 5-0 run. Offensively, the Scots had kills form four different hitters – Klue, senior Taylor Mathews, sophomore Erica Roberts, and junior Ashley Plassard, before Mathews finished off the stretch with her third kill of the frame. Allegheny (11-10, 0-4 NCAC) countered with a 6-1 burst to pull ahead/ by five at 19-14 after a Wooster attack error. Later, Wooster pulled within two at 21-19 thanks to a kill by junior Marija Cyvas, and again at 23-21 off a Plassard kill.
Wooster started to pull away early in the second set courtesy of a solo block by Plassard that sparked a 7-1 run during which the Gators tallied seven attack errors to pair with two ball handling miscues. Later in the frame, back-to-back aces by Mathews and back-to-back kills by Klue pushed Wooster's lead out to 10 at 21-11.
The Scots gradually pulled away in the third set as neither team managed to string together three or more straight points until the Scots had a kill by Roberts and a block by Plassard sandwiched around an Allegheny attack error to close out the frame with a 3-0 run. Other third-set highlights included a trio of blocks by the Scots, two of which Cyvas was in on.
Wooster raced out to a 9-1 lead in the final set with the Scots' senior duo doing the heavy lifting with three kills each from Klue and Mathews. Later in the set, a double-block by Cyvas and Mathews followed up by a kill by sophomore Kyana Harris padded the Scots' lead out to nine at 15-6. A pair of blocks down the stretch, including a triple one by Cyvas, Harris, and Roberts helped keep a late Gator infestation at bay.
Plassard backed Klue up in the kill column with 11 – her third straight double-digit match – while Mathews logged a double-double with 44 assists and a match-high 23 digs. Klue tacked on to her double-double haul as well with 10 digs, while junior Gabrielle Basinski rounded out the trio of Scots with double digit digs with 13.
Allegheny's Grace Lengauer recorded a team-high nine kills while libero Terra Schall added 17 digs.
Earlier in the evening, the Scots depth was on full display as Wooster topped the University of Akron Wayne College (2-5) 25-4, 25-8, 25-14. During the match, the Scots established a new program benchmark during the current scoring era for the highest hitting percentage at .485, while individually, first-year McKenna Gassman served up a single-match program record nine aces.
Other notable stats from the Akron Wayne match featured 10 kills on 14 swings with no errors from junior Eleri Miller, seven kills by junior Eva Stebel, five aces by junior Erin Rajewski, and Gassman backed her ace haul up with six kills.
For the match, the Scots logged 19 aces, one shy of the team single-match record for the current scoring era.
Gabby Schmucker led Akron Wayne with six digs and four kills.
Next, Wooster travels to Hiram College (13-8, 1-4 NCAC) for a 7 p.m. match on Friday.