MANKATO, Minn. - The Yellow Jacket volleyball team traveled east to the play at Minnesota State Univ. Mankato's Maverick Invitational Tournament and joined Northern St. and Univ. of Illinois-Springfield in the two-day competition that was on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13-14, 2013.
The highlight of the weekend was the Jackets closing out MSU and UIS in consecutive five-set matches that helped them reach one match above .500 on the season with an overall record of 4-3 (0-0 RMAC).
Head coach, Sally Nichols, was pleased with her group in while on the road with an energetic crowd, especially when playing the Mavericks.
"Mankato was a big win for us. We were excited to have the opportunity to play the host school at prime time, to experience the energy of a road crowd. We were able to really pull together as a team and make great clutch decisions in the 20's and in the 5th set to come out with a win," Nichols said.
MSU was the second match of the weekend where the Jackets came out to a quick start before dropping two sets in a row before closing out the match. Caitlin Templeton led the way for the Jackets vs. the Mavericks as she led with 19 kills. Amy O'Neill put down 18 kills on top of leading the match with 15 digs for the Jackets. Brynn Eckhardt continued her impressive true freshman campaign as she had 57 assists vs. MSU.
Prior to the MSU match, NSU defeated the Jackets in three sets (25-11, 25-19, 28-26).
In that third set of the match, the Jackets heated up and actually were tied with NSU with 18 kills as BHSU improved to a .229 hitting percentage. NSU was effective in holding BHSU's top hitters in Templeton, O'Neill and Meghan Sipe to 39 total kills combined.
In the final match, BHSU took on UIS out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and again won in a back-and-forth match in five sets (UIS 28-26, BH 25-21, UIS 28-26, BH 25-17, BH 15-10).
Templeton turned in an impressive .512 hitting-percentage with 24 kills on 41 attacks. O'Neill also had 24 kills as Eckhardt added 66 assists and libero Kelsey Olson turned in 23 digs.
"Caitlin Templeton was unstoppable," Nichols said.
In total for the tournament, Templeton finished with 52 kills. O'Neill ended up with 55 kills as Eckhardt totaled 152 assists. Both Templeton and O'Neill were named to the all-tournament team by weekend's end.
"Olson came up huge on defense and Brynn Eckhardt distributed the ball well up front to Caitlin, Amy, Meghan, Holly, and Shelby. We are looking forward to starting conference competition this week versus Regis and Metro," Nichols continued.
Next up for the Jackets is their home and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opening weekend of the season as they get set to host Regis (4-5, 0-0 RMAC) on Friday, Sept. 20, 2013 at 7 p.m. MT. On Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, Metro St. comes to town for a 5 p.m. MT start time from the Young Center.
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