RIPON, Wisconsin — The Ripon volleyball program split a pair of matches on Friday at its own Ripon College Classic, taking down Mount Mary before falling to Luther inside Weiske Gymnasium.
Ripon (1-1) breezed past Mount Mary (0-1) in three sets (25-15, 25-11, 25-9) before dropping a five-set battle to Luther (1-1) in the final game of the day (25-11, 25-23, 14-25, 21-25, 6-15).
The Red Hawks' season-opening win was its first in an opener since 2017.
The star of the show on Friday was freshman
Nickie Shaw. In the first match of her college career, the freshman tallied a game-high 13 kills on 19 attacks, good for a .526 clip. No other player on the court had more than seven kills.
Right from the onset, Ripon established its dominance. Trailing 6-5 in set one, the Red Hawks rattled off five of the next six points to take the lead in the frame for good. Though Mount Mary trimmed its deficit to one on multiple occasions, four consecutive points put the hosts up 16-11, and Ripon would lead by at least four points for the remainder of the set.
Set two's route was on from the get-go – Ripon led 16-5 very quickly, scoring points in bunches. The Red Hawks had four runs of at least three consecutive points, never allowing the Blue Angels to creep within 10 points after said 16-5 advantage.
Set three once again belonged to Ripon in convincing fashion. After the teams split the first two points, Ripon scored the next six – and 11 of the next 13 – to go up 12-3 halfway through the set. The Red Hawks ended the match on a 10-1 run – finished fittingly on a Shaw kill – and cruised to their first victory of the season.
Lainie Heizler had seven kills while
Sophia Brinker added six to strengthen the Ripon attack, and
Emily Braun had a game-high 22 assists.
Bella Kasuboski picked up right where she left off last season in the service department, tallying five more aces against the Blue Angels. Defensively,
Michaela Riege had 12 digs in her Ripon debut. Brinker also had four total blocks to help the cause.
As a team, Ripon had a dominating 39-15 advantage in kills. The Red Hawks also served up 13 aces compared to Mount Mary's one. Ripon held additional advantages in blocks (5-2), assists (35-12) and digs (35-21).
In game two, Ripon used momentum from earlier in the day to breeze past the visiting Norse in set one. With the teams deadlocked at nine, Ripon scored the next 12 points – forcing Luther to use both timeouts in that time period – to grab a commanding 21-9 advantage. A Shaw kill – her fifth of the set – finished off an impressive 25-11 set one win.
Set two was even in the opening points as well, but a 6-0 run prompted a Luther timeout and gave the hosts an 8-3 advantage. However, the Norse rallied and after Ripon led 9-6, the lead for either team was no more than two the remainder of the set. Two critical service errors cost Luther, and a kill by
Ellie Ove sent Ripon to the third set with a 2-0 lead.
The tide turned in the third set. Luther raced out to a quick 7-3 and never took its foot off the gas. A 6-0 run turned a three-point lead into a nine-point lead, and though Ripon cut its deficit to six on multiple occasions, the Norse scored five of the last six points to force a fourth set.
In the fourth, Luther again started strong to the tune of a 9-2 advantage. With Ripon trailing by four, the Red Hawks conceded five consecutive points to the Norse as the deficit crept near double digits (16-7). Four consecutive points near the end of the set brought Ripon within 23-21, but Luther scored the next two points to finish off the frame.
The Norse carried their momentum from the last two sets into the fifth. After Heizler connected on a kill to trim Ripon's deficit to 7-6, Luther scored the final nine points of the match to seal the comeback victory.
Shaw again starred for Ripon, amassing a team-high 14 kills. Heizler was also in double digits, totaling 11, while Ove (nine) and Brinker (seven) also had productive offensive outings. Braun netted 24 assists, while Riege had a game-high 21 digs and Kasuboski added 14.
The two teams were evenly matched as the statistics showed: Luther had a slight 56-52 edge in kills, a 46-44 advantage in assists and a 74-73 edge in digs. Ripon tallied more aces than its opponent for the second time on Friday, amassing 10 compared to Luther's six.
Ripon finishes its weekend on Saturday (August 31) as the Red Hawks host Marian and Illinois Tech inside Weiske Gymnasium to round out the annual Ripon College Classic. First serves are scheduled for 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.
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