Herd Volleyball Gives SBC Leading JMU All It Could Handle in Five-Set Loss

Box Score

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall University volleyball team (7-18, 1-12 Sun Belt) battled Sun Belt Conference leading James Madison Dukes (18-4, 12-1 Sun Belt) to the brink in a five-set loss (23-25, 25-19, 14-25, 25-21, 15-10) on Friday in the Cam Henderson Center.

"Tonight was a great representation of what we see every day in practice," Herd volleyball head coach Ari Aganus said after the match. "We made too many errors in crucial moments that we need to clean up. However, it was a great battle and we're hungry to get after it tomorrow!"

The Herd had three student-athletes with double-digit kills as graduate student Macy McElhaney had 19, junior Regan Tinkle recorded 17 and senior Lydia Montague finished with 14 kills. McElhaney recorded 15 digs for a double-double in the contest.

Sophomore Brynn Brown collected a career-high 58 assists with graduate student Kaitlyn Gehler finishing the match with a game-high 29 digs.

The first set saw the two sides in a battle of tug of war. The opening set saw the scoreboard tied 16 times to go with five lead changes. Both teams traded points until the score was knotted 9-9. JMU then took a 15-12 advantage at the media timeout. However, a pair of kills by Macy McElhaney and a kill by Brown brought the Herd back even with the Dukes, 15-15. After trading rallies and the score tied 23-23, McElhaney recorded back-to-back kills to give Marshall the set 25-23.

MU took an early 2-0 lead in the second stanza off a JMU attacking error and a Macy McElhaney kill. The Dukes rallied to take a 4-3 advantage on the Herd. Although Marshall kept the score within striking distance, James Madison held off the home team to take the set 25-19.

The third frame was all Herd. It jumped out to a 4-0 lead off a pair of JMU attacking errors, a Brown service ace and a kill by senior Essence Clerkley. The Dukes pulled within one with the MU advantage at 7-6. However, Marshall outscored James Madison 18-8 the rest of the way to take the set 25-14. The Herd held the Dukes to a .098 hitting percentage in the set as the home had a match-best .389 hitting percentage.

Marshall kept the fourth and fifth sets close, but JMU took the final two frames 25-21 and 15-10, respectively, to capture the match from the Herd.

UP NEXT
Marshall looks to avenge Friday's loss on Saturday as it closes out the weekend against JMU at 1 p.m.

For all the latest information about Marshall volleyball, follow @HerdVolleyball on Twitter and Marshall University Volleyball on Facebook.

To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules, and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS or Android!

---HerdZone.com---

Herd Volleyball Gives SBC Leading JMU All It Could Handle in Five-Set Loss

Next Event

Team Stats

Macy McElhaney

Regan Tinkle

Lydia Montague

Essence Clerkley

Marshall University Athletics