Pair of Career-Highs Energize Trojan Wins inside Odle
UPLAND, IN. – The No. 22 Taylor Trojan volleyball team (6-0) remained undefeated at the end of Saturday’s tournament competition, having traversed the wild country of adversity en route to two stunning five-set match wins.
It’s hard to capture in words the grit embodied by Taylor throughout the day, as the Trojans found themselves down two-sets-to-one in each of their two matches.
Taylor first took the court at 10:00 am in the morning, squaring off against then-undefeated IU-Kokomo (3-1). After Taylor took the first set 25-to-21, Kokomo came back and took the next two sets, the last of which sung to the tune of 25-to-15 Cougars.
The remainder of the match favored Taylor, however, as Taylor limited itself to just six total errors while nurturing 16-Cougar errors on the other end.
Ryan Czerniak led the way on offense for Taylor yet again, totaling 17 kills against IU-Kokomo. Meanwhile, Grace College transfer, Anna Frey, posted a double-double with 13 kills and 15 digs, while Arlanda Faulkner tallied 11 more kills herself.
Later in the evening, Taylor matched up with Thomas More (2-2), a duel that only raised the ante after Taylor’s early-morning thriller.
Once again, Taylor took the first set, this time by a score of 25-to-23, before Thomas More rallied back for two set-wins of its own. The script soon flipped in set four, though, as Taylor won the set 25-to-22 behind 17 team kills, 10 of which came in the form of the strong right hands of Faulkner and sophomore, Jaylynn Dunsmore.
Czerniak would once again command the scoresheet, however, as the lefty striker posted a career-high 26 kills, including six mammoth kills in the decisive fifth set. Czerniak now leads the Crossroads League with 93 total kills on the season, all the while maintaining a league-best hitting percentage of .455.
Taylor’s senior right-side hitter does not pound kills in a vacuum, though, for fellow senior, Kacy Bragg, continues to be a wizard with the set. Bragg set up an absurd, career-best 61 assists throughout Taylor’s gritty win over Thomas More, now leading the league with 243 total assists and a mark of 10.13 assists-per-set.
Meanwhile, Trojan libero, Jen Springer, recorded a team-high 24 digs, followed by Frey who scored her second double-double of the day with 17 digs beside 13 kills. Frey merely served as one part of a three-headed monster supporting Czerniak’s offensive campaign, though, as Dunsmore and Faulkner each struck 13 kills themselves against the Saints.
At the end of the day, these are just numbers, trying their best to articulate the grit embodied by the Taylor volleyball team on the second day of the second-annual Amber McClure Fayerweather Memorial Tournament, a day on which Taylor took two to improve to six-and-o on the season.
No. 22 Taylor (6-0) now prepares for the even tougher competition waiting for them at the Bellevue Tournament in Nebraska, with its first match slated against No. 14 Central Methodist (2-1) on Friday, September 2, at 3:00 pm ET.