Lady Cougars Open Season with Split at Grace Classic


	Lady Cougar Volleyball Recaps Lady Cougars Open Season with Split at Grace Classic written by Dave Parsons, Sports Information Director Match #1 Boxscore \| Match #2 Boxscore WINONA LAKE, Ind. (8-20-2010) - The Mount Vernon Nazarene University women's volleyball team got its season under way on Friday evening at the Grace (Ind.) College Ramada Plaza Classic as the Lady Cougars split a pair of matches in pool play. MVNU (1-1) began the day with a match against Indiana University East, the preseason pick to win the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference who received votes in the NAIA preseason poll after a 30-12 record last year that included a trip to the NAIA National Championship. The Red Wolves (2-0) pulled out a hard-fought 25-19, 25-22, 26-24 sweep of the Lady Cougars in the opening match of pool play. Senior middle hitter Jackie Albrecht (left) led MVNU with 10 kills and 10 digs, while freshman outside hitters Courtney Briegel and Kendra Votaw each pounded six kills apiece in their college debuts. Senior middle hitter Sarah Yutzy led the Lady Cougars with three blocks, and senior libero Caitlin Myles posted 11 digs. Sophomore setter Lauren Percival also handed out 29 assists. MVNU rallied in the second and final match of the day to outlast Bethel (Ind.) College 25-19, 20-25, 17-25, 25-19, 15-11. Albrecht paced the Lady Cougars in the win over the Pilots (1-1) with 22 kills, five blocks, and three aces, while sophomore right-side hitter Kaylee Hewitt contributed a career-high nine kills to go with 10 digs. Votaw pounded eight kills, and Yutzy posted six blocks. Briegel and Myles registered 22 and 20 digs respectively, while Percival handed out a career-high 47 assists with 18 digs. "These were two good matches to open the season for us,” said MVNU coach Paul Swanson. "(Indiana East) is a very good team that played well. We got better as the match went on, but it was not enough to get the job done. Against Bethel, we battled back and fought to win the match. I was very pleased with our effort and improvement over the course of the day.” The Lady Cougars will return to action at 11 a.m. when the team will close out pool play with a match against Huntington (Ind.) University. Then, MVNU will play at either 2 or 4 p.m. in a match against one of the teams from the other pool of four teams.

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