SPEARFISH, S.D.—The Griffins from Westminster College demonstrated a hitch in their giddy-up throughout their first season as a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference member. Despite their 5-16 record prior to the contest, pride was on the line in their match against the Black Hills State University volleyball team at the Young Center on Friday night.
The Griffins came off six consecutive losses, which equated to six missed opportunities in giving head coach Al Givens his 400th win. BHSU's pride rested on senior night and competing at a high level for Shelby Mayer and Sammi Ausborn.
The Griffin's pride was evident in their 3-0 win over the Yellow Jackets on Friday night. BHSU's loss drops them to 7-15, 4-10 RMAC while Westminster improves to 6-16, 3-11 RMAC.
Westminster 3, Yellow Jackets 0
The Griffins and Yellow Jackets traded leads four times throughout the beginning of set one. Westminster took the lead for a majority of the set when BHSU committed an attack error to make the score 10-9.
BHSU regained a brief 22-21 lead after six different Yellow Jackets registered kills.
The Yellow Jackets haunted themselves with three errors down the stretch to hand the Griffins a 25-23 win in set one.
A pair of Danielle Torpey kills to open set two helped BHSU hold leads of 4-3 and 5-4 before the Griffins took over for good. Westminster held a tie or lead by the skin of their teeth before things escalated.
With the score tied 11-11, Amara Culpepper chipped in with a pair of kills to propel a Griffin run that saw them take a 17-11 lead. The Yellow Jackets never rebounded from it in a 25-16 loss in set two.
Like set one and two, BHSU kept things tight until the Griffins took over half way through. With the score tied 9-9 in set three, Culpepper notched five kills to help Westminster jump to a 18-10 lead.
It proved to be enough cushion to help the Griffins secure a 25-14 set-three win.
Torpey led BHSU with eight kills in the match while Brynn Eckhardt registered 22 assists.
Seniors Mayer and Ausborn were honored prior the contest.
The Yellow Jackets will play their final home match of 2015 at the Young Center tomorrow, October 31 against Colorado Mesa. Game time is set for 5:00 p.m.
