Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Dukes concluded play at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational on Saturday evening, defeating Canisius in straight sets, 3-0 inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. With the victory, the Duquesne University volleyball team wraps up non-conference play and improves to 9-3 on the season.
POINT OF EMPHASIS
The two squads opened the contests by exchanging points (4-4) until the Dukes strung together a 7-2 stint to claim an 11-6 lead. Freshman
Emersen Schrom started the run with an ace before graduate student
Elizabeth Drelling, junior
Carsyn Henschen, and sophomore
Jordan Robertson all found the floor successfully. After a Golden Griffins timeout, Drelling collected two more kills to end the run. Later in the set, Duquesne held a 16-9 advantage before scoring six of the next nine points to take a 16-10 lead. Schrom paced the way with three successful swings while Drelling collected a pair of points. Canisius would string together a 5-2 stint but a service error gave the Dukes a 25,17 victory in the opening set.
CONSISTENTLY ATTACKING
Duquesne put together one of its best sets of the season in set two, producing an impressive .500 hitting percentage, along with four blocks and four aces. The Dukes jumped out to an 8-3 lead, thanks to points from Drelling and junior
Ariel Helm while Schrom and sophomore
Avery Hobson collected service aces. After a Canisius timeout, Duquesne continued to roll, stringing together a 9-4 stint to take a 17-7 advantage. Henschen and Schrom paced the run with two kills each while Drelling found the floor successfully and Helm tallied a pair of blocks. The Golden Griffins wouldn't shy away as it put together a 6-1 run to trim the deficit, 18-13. The Dukes would respond by scoring seven of the final nine points to take a 2-0 lead in the match, with a 25-15 win. Schrom and Drelling started the run with consecutive kills while junior
Madison Grimm collected an ace. After a pair of points from Canisius, Schrom and Drelling registered a pair of successful swings before Schrom sealed the set with an ace.
CAN'T STOP … WON'T STOP
The Dukes continued its dominance in the third set, registering a .467 hitting percentage to go along with 17 kills. Duquesne rattled off the first five points of the set before bolstering to a 13-4 lead. Drelling collected four kills in the run while Robertson found the floor successfully twice. After Canisius tallied a pair of points, the Dukes strung together an 8-2 run that featured three kills from Helm and a pair from Henschen (21-8). The two teams traded the next eight points as Drelling ended the match with a successful swing.
STOP DRELLING ON IT
Registering five-plus kills in all three sets, Elizabeth Dreliing paced the Dukes and tied her season-high with 17 kills on the evening. She finished with a .500 hitting percentage while totaling 32 attacks and just one error. Drelling carded five digs and one ace against the Golden Griffins. The grad student got Duquesne off to a hot start, registering six successful swings in the opening set before tallying five in the second stanza. The California native ended the match with six more kills in the third set, sealing the victory and final point with a point. Drelling has now reached double-figure kills in six consecutive games, averaging 12.8 per match during that time frame.
INSIDE THE STAT SHEET
Along with Drelling,
Emersen Schrom finished with 12 kills on a .391 percent clip while collecting three aces and three assists. Sophomore
Chloe Wilmot registered 21 assists and seven digs while grad student
Grace Kristofic tallied 11 helpers. Junior
Madison Grimm totaled a team-high 10 digs while dishing out four assists in the win.
UP NEXT
Duquesne begins Atlantic 10 action, when it hosts George Washington for a doubleheader on Friday, Sept. 27 – Saturday, Sept. 28, inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
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