NEW CONCORD, Ohio — The Marietta College volleyball team improved to 2-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) with a hard fought 3-1 (25-23, 26-28, 25-14, 25-21) victory at rival Muskingum University Tuesday (Oct. 6) night. The Pioneers also moved to 15-6 overall, while the Fighting Muskies fell to 8-10, 0-2 in the OAC. [Box Score]

The two rivals traded leads throughout the first set with neither boosting a serious advantage. The set was locked at 23-23 before consecutive kills inside the 10-foot line by sophomore outside hitter Alex Weissling (Dublin, Dublin Scioto) and sophomore right side hitter Meredith Storey (Olmsted Falls, Olmsted Falls) sealed the two-point win for Marietta.

Muskingum maintained a lead throughout most of the second set. A kill by freshman outside hitter Amanda Sawicki (Mentor, Lake Catholic) tied the score at 20-20, and an ace by freshman setter Ally Jenkins (Twinsburg, Walsh Jesuit) gave Marietta a one-point lead. Muskingum fought back to take a 22-21 advantage before a kill by Storey evened the score at 22-22. Two straight Muskingum attack errors gave Marietta a 24-23 lead, but two consecutive Muskie blocks knotted the set back up at 24-24. The teams traded the next 5 points, and a kill by Muskingum on the sixth point helped it take set two 28-26.

The Pioneers jumped out to an 11-4 lead and forced a quick Muskie timeout in set three. Three straight aces by Weissling help Marietta push the advantage to 15-4. Muskingum answered with a 4-0 run, but Marietta then scored five of the next eight points to regain a commanding lead, 20-11. Two kills in a span of the final three points by freshman middle blocker Sarah Campbell (Twinsburg, Twinsburg) finished off a 25-14 win for Marietta, giving it a 2-1 lead in the match.

Once again, Marietta took the early advantage in set four. Muskingum, however, fought back to take a 15-11 lead. The Pioneers answered with a 4-0 run behind two kills from Storey and then extended their advantage to 19-16 with two straight service aces from senior defensive specialist Katy Williams (Richmond, Ind., Richmond). Marietta continued to keeps its lead at three points and eventually secured the 25-21 victory with a slide kill from Sawicki to give the Pioneers the 3-1 win.

Senior libero Becca Holzworth (North Olmsted, North Olmsted) paced the defense with 36 digs, which is the third most for a Pioneer ever in a four-set match. She also moved with 16 digs of tying the all-time record for 1643, set by Julie Goebel in 1991.

Four other Pioneers had double-digit digs. Williams finished with 19, Weissling had 16, Jenkins collected 13 and freshman outside hitter Jen Braun (Chagrin Falls, Kenston) added 10. Marietta's defense was also aided by 12.5 blocks, including 5 block assists from Storey and 4 from both Campbell and freshman middle blocker Alexa Baudo (Mentor, Mayfield).

Storey led all players with 13 kills, while Sawicki added 11 in the win. Jenkins dished out 35 assists. Weissling and Williams both contributed 5 of the team's 15 services aces.

Marietta is back in action on Friday (Oct. 9) when #4 Ohio Northern University visits Ban Johnson Arena for an OAC match-up at 7 p.m. Live statistics will be available at http://www.marietta.edu/athletics/livestats/xlive.htm.