Alverno College

MILWAUKEE – The Alverno volleyball team returned to the court with some fireworks on Wednesday evening, playing in its first contest since October 30, 2019, the Inferno erased a 2-0 deficit to record a 3-2 win over crosstown foe Mount Mary inside a raucous Reiman Gymnasium.
 
With the win, the Inferno open the season with a victory for the first time since the 2017 season, when Alverno also knocked off Mount Mary in a home contest to open the campaign. Alverno's last win overall came in its 2019 home bout against the Blue Angels in mid-September.
 
A pair of Inferno making their collegiate debuts burst onto the scene as the pair wrote their way into the volleyball record books, as sophomore Skylar Kumprey and freshman Rolin West each drilled 20 kills in the opener. With their mark, the duo tied sixth place on the single-match kills mark, and became the first Inferno to reach at least 20 kills in a match since Cailey Jeske '19 accomplished the feat in her senior season of 2018 against Caltech at the MSOE Invitational.
 
Kumprey ended the night with 20 kills and hit .320 on the night, while West also had 20 kills and hit .173. West added one assist and three aces to her ledger. Defensively, Kumprey was second on the team with 19 digs, while West was third with 15 digs. Kumprey had a 1.000 receiving percentage as she cleanly handled all 22 attacks sent her way.
 
As a team, Alverno had its highest team hitting percentage in a match, at .198, since the end of the 2018 season, when the Inferno connected on .202 against Rockford. The Inferno also amassed 58 kills on the night, which is fourth-most in a single match, just two shy of tying the program record. Alverno's 55 assists as a team is tied for third on the single-match list all-time.
 
Sophomore Jenna Flayter, making her collegiate debut, registered 25 digs, falling just outside the top-10 on the single match marks. Flayter ended the evening third on the team with 11 kills as she led the team with a .333 hitting percentage in her 27 swings.
 
Senior Alex McMath, tallied 22 assists and led the team with four service aces as she also chipped into the offensive attack with a pair of kills. Sophomore Selena Upshur, in her Alverno debut notched four kills and had 11 digs on the night, while also leading the way with a pair of blocks.
 
Freshman Izzy Gianniou led Alverno with 30 helpers, averaging six per set, as she and McMath assisted on 52 of Alverno's 58 kills overall. Gianniou along with McMath were also credited with one block apiece on the contest.
 
Mount Mary took the opening two sets of the match, before Alverno took control late and were able to avoid the sweep by taking the third set by a score of 25-16. In the fourth, the two sides played to a closely contested matchup with a 25-22 decision in the fourth.
 
Alverno took an early lead in the fifth set, but that large lead dwindled but the Inferno had enough left in the tank to take the final set by a 15-13 score.
 
Alverno (1-0, 0-0 NACC) will host non-conference Beloit at 6 p.m. on Friday evening inside Reiman Gymnasium.