Avila Wins Pair of Matches in Home Tri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In a pair of strong performances against quality opposition, Avila volleyball (11-16, 2-5 KCAC) won both matches in its home triangular at Mabee Fieldhouse on Friday afternoon, knocking off KCAC rival Saint Mary (14-11, 3-3 KCAC) in four sets before cruising past College of the Ozarks (15-10) in straight sets.

The Avila offense was totally in sync all day, getting consistently good passing and serve receptions to put the Eagle setters in good position to succeed, and the hitters took full advantage of their opportunities. Avila started off the tripleheader Friday against conference rival Saint Mary and put together a really strong team performance: Avila out-hit, out-aced and out-dug a Spire team that was receiving national rankings votes earlier this season.

Leading 11-10 in the first set, Saint Mary surged ahead 16-11. That's when the Eagles erupted, winning the final 15 points of the first set on the serve of Chase Kallevig, by far the longest scoring run by the Eagles this season. The second set was a lot more even after that astonishing end to the first set, but McKenzie Green delivered the final two kills to lift the Eagles to a 25-22 victory in set two.

The Spires got their offense going in the third set to force the match into a fourth frame, but the Eagles, as head coach Marylyn Mozena said postgame, did not allow the Spires to continue to surge. Instead, after falling behind 3-0 in the fourth set, the Eagles won the next six to vault in front and never looked back. D'Ovion Williams was involved in blocks in three of those six points. Avila led for the rest of the set – back to back Addison Davis aces helped extend Avila's lead to six, and then Davis set up Phoebe Riddle for the winning kill to seal up a four-set win for the Eagles.

Top USM outside hitter Rylee Kenitzer heated up late and led all players with 16 kills. Williams had an uncharacteristically slow day on offense but the rest of the Eagles picked up the slack: Kelsey Johnson paced Avila with 13 kills and Green added 11, while Shay Karmazyn had seven kills and eight digs. Abigail Blake led all players with 27 digs.

After a frustrating first match Saint Mary got back in sync by sweeping Ozarks in the second match of the day. That set up an Eagles vs. Bobcats matchup to wrap up the afternoon, and the Eagles put together their best offensive showing of the season to secure their second win of the day. On average, the Eagles hit .155 as a team this season; against the Bobcats they bumped that clip up to .351, a new season high, with only nine attack errors in the match. Avila is still undefeated this year when hitting at least .250 in a match.

Avila put together a 7-0 service run on Kallevig's serve to open up a huge lead in the first set but Ozarks ultimately rallied to force extras until Chloe Brundick set up Karmazyn and Johnson for clutch kills to lift the Eagles to a 26-24 win.

From there, it was all Eagles. Ozarks scored the first point of the second set and never led again. Avila went on a 10-3 run after surrendering that first point to take firm control, and Davis set up Riddle for back to back kills to close out the set in resounding fashion, 25-14. And if that was a resounding win, then set three was simply dominant: the Bobcats never won consecutive points in the period and the Eagles rolled to a 25-8 win to complete the sweep.

Riddle had a monster match, leading all players with 11 kills and no errors, a .786 attacking clip, and three block assists. Williams returned to form with eight kills on .412 hitting and Johnson added in eight on .259.

Up next for Avila volleyball is another home KCAC contest this coming Wednesday, October 19 against Friends. Varsity reserve gets the action started at 5 PM with varsity to follow at 7 PM. You can watch the JV match live on the Avila Athletics YouTube page, and the varsity match live on the Avila Sports Network.