APSU Women’s Volleyball
Morehead, KY – For the first time in more than a decade, Austin Peay’s volleyball team will play for an Ohio Valley Conference championship after defeating sixth-seeded Tennessee Tech in four sets (24-26, 25-20, 25-21, 25-18), Friday night at Wetherby Gym.
Austin Peay (25-6) advanced to its first championship match since 1999. The Lady Govs will face the Morehead State Eagles in a 4:00pm contest today, that can be seen live on the internet at OVCSports.tv.
The second set proved to be the closest of the match with the two squads exchanging the lead five times and battling through 12 ties. Sophomore Nikki Doyle would give Austin Peay its first lead at 9-8 in the second set. But it was senior Taylor Skinner’s kill as part of a 4-0 run that gave the Lady Govs a 22-19 lead they would maintain to tie the match.
The Lady Govs took control of the third and fourth sets early and pushed their lead in both sets. An 8-2 run in the third set gave APSU a 13-7 advantage TTU would only challenge briefly, closing to within a point, 15-14. Austin Peay fended off the run to win, 25-21. The Lady Govs jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the decisive fourth set and after trading the next three points would not see their lead shrink to less than three points the rest of the match, finally endinig the match with a 6-2 run sparked by a pair of Doyle kills.
Doyle finished with a match-best 20 kills, her best output since a career-high 23 kills against Murray State, September 17th. Mollmann added 16 kills while Skinner chipped in nine kills and a team-best .500 attack percentage.
Austin Peay finished with 65 kills, its best four-set total since that same Murray State match. The Lady Govs .280 match attack percentage was their ninth-best effort this season.
