FORT WAYNE, Ind -- The Lawrence Technological (Mich.) University women's volleyball team split the final day of the Liz Lykowski Memorial Tournament at Indiana Tech, opening the day with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-22) over Goshen (Ind.) College and falling to Taylor (Ind.) University 3-1 (26-24, 25-17, 15-25, 25-23).
Lawrence Tech (17-8, 9-3) hit .220 with 44 kills as they swept the Leafs in three sets. The Blue Devils opened the first set on a 7-0 runs as Reinali Calisin served six straight after McDonald open the set with a kill. Goshen responded with a 5-0 run of their own, but Lawrence Tech held off the push, extending the lead to 17-12 following a kill from Brittany Schmidt. Goshed cut the lead to one at 17-16 and again at 21-20, but the Blue Devils finished the set up 25-21.
In the second set, Lawrence Tech held an 11-7 lead as McDonald got the kill to put LTU up four. The Leafs battled back to tie it at 14-14 and again at 18-18, but Lawrence Tech closed the set with a block from Dacey Cook and Varvara Gromakova for the 25-22 win.
Lawrence Tech started the the third set up 7-2 as the Blue Devils scored four straight points on Gromakova's serve. Zakia Hunt had a kill while the Leafs had three errors during that mini-run. The Blue Devils led 13-4 when Goshen went on a 7-1 run to cut the LTU lead to 14-11 and cut it to two at 18-16. Lawrence Tech's Alaina Hawthorn put LTU up 19-16 as they went on to win the set and the match with a 25-22 set three win.
Isabella McDonald led the way with a career high 18 kills to go with a .457 hitting percentage and two errors. Kristi Doherty recorded 33 assists and 26 digs in the win while Schmidt added seven kills and 10 digs. Gromakova finished the match with two aces, three kills, and two block assists.
In the final match of the day, Lawrence Tech dropped the first two sets 26-24 and 25-17 before rebounding in the third set with a 25-15 win. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 10-2 lead as Alysha Vipushan served and had three aces during that run. The two team's traded points with Lawrence Tech holding onto a 11-6 lead before going up 23-11. Taylor scored four of the next five points, but Schmidts kill put the set away, cutting the Trojans lead to 2-1. The Blue Devils hit .116 in the set with 10 kills and five errors while Taylor had five kills with 10 errors and a -.122 hitting percentage.
Taylor (13-16) took an early 5-2 lead but the Blue Devils tied the set at 6-6 with four straight points on Vipushan's serve. The Trojans retook the lead at 9-8 and extended it to 15-8 with a 7-0 run on Haley Harrell's serve. With Taylor up 20-13, Lawrence Tech mounted a comeback off Schmidt's serve as they tied the set at 21-21. Both team's traded the next four points until Taylor was able to close the set with a kill and an LTU error to seal the 3-1 win with a 25-23 set win.
McDonald, Doherty, and Hunt all finished with eight kills each while Doherty added a team high 32 assists and 25 digs. Vipushan finished with three service aces while Hunt added five block assists. Gromakova and Schmidt each had four block assists in the loss.
Lawrence Tech returns to conference play on Wednesday, Oct. 17 when they travel to (RV) Lourdes (Ohio) University. Opening serve set for 7 p.m.
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