HIRAM, Ohio—Mount Union's women's volleyball team swept Hiram 25-14, 25-16 and 25-13 Wednesday night for their fifth straight win.
The Purple Raiders (8-2) were led by sophomore
Riley Meister (Madison) with 12 kills and senior
Heaven Bartell (Cleveland / St. Joseph Academy) with seven kills.
Senior
Casey Kildow (Bethesda / Union Local) and sophomore
Melissa Hansen (Hudson) led the team in assists with 15 and 12.
Senior
Katelyn Lesko (Mineral Ridge) finished with a game-high 15 digs while Bartell finished with double digits with 11 digs.
Hiram (5-6) was led by Emily Richardson with seven kills, Kelly Hoffman with 10 assists and Brooke Norris with 11 digs.
Set One
Mount Union got off to a 3-1 start with a kill from senior
Darby Leininger (Chardon / Beaumont) and Meister. Hiram battled back to take a 7-6 lead, but Mount Union responded with a 5-0 run as sophomores
Molly McKee (North Ridgeville) and
Ava Bolen (Wellsburg, W. Va. / Brooke) each got a block. A quick Hiram point was short lived as Mount Union went on a 9-2 run as Meister picked up three more kills to take a 21-10 lead. Mount Union and Hiram shared points the rest of the set as Mount Union took the set 25-14.
Set Two
The Raiders got off to a 6-3 start as Meister picked up two kills and McKee picked up a kill. Hiram got to within one at 6-5 but a 6-0 scoring run from Mount Union pushed the lead out to 12-5. Mount Union got another run this time of 6-1 to take a 19-8 lead as Hiram had four different errors in the run. Mount Union and Hiram traded points the rest of the way as Mount Union took the set 25-16.
Set Three
The final set saw Mount Union once again get out to a lead this time 7-3. Hiram battled back to 7-5 but a 5-0 run which saw a kill from Bartell and then two aces from Bartell opened the lead out to 12-5. Mount Union the rest of the way used two separate 3-0 runs to grab the 25-13 set victory.
Mount Union now heads to Pittsburgh, Pa. on Friday to take on Ohio Wesleyan at Carnegie Mellon University with a 5 pm start.
