MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College volleyball team swept Muskingum University 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-21) on Wednesday (Oct. 4) evening at the Ban Johnson Arena. With the win the Pioneers are now 7-7 overall and 2-0 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, and with the loss the Fighting Muskies fall to 4-10 overall and 1-2 in the OAC.
Both teams traded points for the early part of the match.
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) delivered a kill to tie at nine, but Muskingum would edge forward with a kill from Josie Niemeyer to take a 10-9 lead. The Pioneers would run off the next seven points, fueled by aces from Maggie Fellers and kills from
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) and
Mia Silva (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton). Leading 18-13, Marietta closed out set one by scoring the final seven points and won, 25-13.
The second set saw Muskingum jump out to a 6-3 lead, but the Pioneers fought back with kills from
Emory Spitler (Lebanon, Ohio/Lebanon), Maggie Fellers, and Silva to jump back out to a 9-6 lead. The Pioneers then took advantage of a pair of Fighting Muskie attack errors to extend the lead to 12-5. Muskingum won back a trio of points, only to give up another big Pioneer scoring rally. Kills from the Fellers sisters and
Sophie Evans (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) extended the lead to 19-11. The Muskies attempted to come back but could not overcome the differential. The Pioneers scored the final point off of a Silva kill, and won 25-18.
Marietta jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third set, but Muskingum still had some fight in them. They cut the lead to 7-4 with a Khloe Taylor kill. Marietta put more pressure on the Muskies as they widened the lead to 15-7, but Muskingum would continue to chip away at the lead. Late in the set, Muskingum would take five consecutive points and would only find themselves down 22-20. The Pioneers would take three of the final four possessions, fueled by a thunderous kill from Jillian Fellers and Marietta would close out a 25-21 set three victory
The Pioneers were led by Jillian Fellers with 14 kills, two blocks, and she also collected nine digs in the match. Maggie Fellers added 12 kills. Silva finished with seven kills and three blocks, Spitler, who was honored in the pregame with collecting her 1,000th career assist earlier in the season, collected 37 assists. Defensively,
Keira Shannon (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community) led the team with 19 digs.
Marietta will return to the court Saturday (Oct. 8) when they travel to take on John Carroll University, with the match scheduled for 1 p.m.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
