SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- The John Brown University volleyball team hit .365 on the afternoon and made quick work of Oklahoma Panhandle State as JBU grabbed its fourth-straight win with a sweep (25-23, 25-29, 25-15) on Saturday (Sept. 15) inside Bill George Arena.
Offensively, the Golden Eagles (5-5, 5-1 Sooner Athletic) were paced by a 12 terminations from senior Bayli Reagan and another 10 from junior Jessica Meyer. Bolstering the offensive attack, juniors Megan Beck and Lindsey Davis each hit without an error as the pair each contributed eight kills and hit over .400 on the match.
"It was good to pick up the second home win in as many days, and on short turn around time," said head coach Ken Carver. "While it wasn't as error-free a match as I would have liked, especially from the service line and serve receive, at times our team performed well from the back row. All of our front row players did a good job of taking care of the ball and terminating for points at a high level.
"Carrie (Ciesla) and Elizabeth (Parrish) did a good job in running a balanced offensive attack by moving the ball around to our hitters. When we are able to do that, we are a hard team to defend against since opposing teams do not know who to key on to stop. Defensively, Jenna (Lowery) was instrumental in initiating our transition offense by delivering in-system digs to our setters. While we still had some mental focus breaks during the course of the match, our team did a good job of making the necessary corrections and closing out every set well."
Lowery contributed her second-straight 20-dig effort, leading all players with 21 on the match. Ciesla, meanwhile, passed out 20 assists while junior Elizabeth Williams added 15 in the win.
"After three weeks of conference play, I'm pleased with where we are at so far," Carver added. "Our trip next week to East Texas to play Southwestern A.G. and Texas Wesleyan will require us to elevate our play and continue to limit the number of unforced errors against these two very good teams if we are going to put ourselves into a position to win those matches."
JBU hit a blistering .562 (21-3-32) in the first set, despite that being the closest set of the match. The Golden Eagle defense stepped up in the second and third sets, limiting the Aggies (2-11, 1-5) to a pair of sub-.200 attacking frames.
John Brown returns to action on Friday (Sept. 21) at 7 p.m. inside the Sheaffer Center as the Golden Eagles take on conference-leading SAGU.
