Berea College Volleyball Takes Pair of Matches from USCAA Competitors.

Berea College Volleyball swept a pair of matches today in their first United States College Athletic Association (USCAA) action of 2014 as UC-Clermont, who played in the 2013 USCAA National Championship Tournament, and WV Tech came to town:

UC-Clermont vs. Berea

After losing to #1 ranked University of Cincinnati-Clermont last season in five sets, the Berea College (2-2) volleyball team was able to exact a measure of revenge. The Mountaineers competed in a slugfest versus UC-Clermont and pulled out the victory in four sets. The Mountaineers lost the first set 21-25 but won the next 3 sets 25-21, 25-22 and 25-23 to win the match. Taylor Ashworth and Kyra Robinson lead the way for the Mountaineer offense with 11 and 10 kills, respectively, while Megan Keller set up many of those kills amassing 18 assists.  On the defensive front the Blue Crew was led by Nicole Baker, who finished the match with 15 digs.

WV-Tech vs. Berea

In the first ever meeting of these USCAA programs, Berea College proved to simply have too much offense and too big of a block for the Golden Bears of WV-Tech.  The Mountaineers pounded down a total of 49 kills and blocked 12 balls in the contest.  34 of those 49 were in the hands of three players:  sophomores Taylor Ashworth's 14, and Simone Brown's 10 (including a .588 hitting percentage 10 kills-0 errors-17 swings) to go along with senior Kaitlynne Smith's 10.  Junior setter Megan Keller and freshman setter Claire Mueller each handed out 21 assists to fuel the Blue Crew attack.

It wasn't just offense that Berea College had going in its second match of the day.  Defensively, junior Nicole Baker scooped up 19 digs, while Keller popped up 10.  Most impressive and dominate was the BC block, including 6 total blocks by Brown, 6 block assists by junior Alaina Fox, and 5 total blocks for junior Kyra Robinson.

Next up for Berea will be a trip down I-75 and a date with Crown College on Tuesday, September 9th.