Alverno College

MILWAUKEE – The Alverno Volleyball team forced the Benedictine Eagles to four sets on Saturday afternoon inside of Reiman Gymnasium, as the Inferno dropped a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match to the visiting Eagles by a 3-1 score.
 
Alverno and Benedictine exchanged wins in the opening set with the Eagles winning the opener 25-22 before the Inferno fought back with a strong showing and a 25-18 win in the second set. The Eagles regained control of the match with a 25-18 third set win, before Benedictine escaped with a 25-23 lead, using a six-point rally to finish off the match.
 
Senior Alex McMath wrote her way into the career record books on the day as she played in all four sets, to give her 285 for her career to break her into the top-10 of all-time sets played in Inferno volleyball history. McMath is already ninth on the all-time matches played list with 87 for her career.
 
The senior also notched 20 assists on the match, accomplishing the feat for the fourth time this season to give her 225 on the year and 1,294 for her career, moving her into sole possession of second place on the all-time assists list, eclipsing Kim Reuter '10. McMath currently sits 260 assists shy of tying the all-time mark of 1,554 set by Meranda Masse '17. She also added seven kills on the match and five aces on the afternoon as she added a dozen digs.
 
Sophomore Rolin West tied her second-highest total of the season with her third match of 17 kills this season, giving her 190 on the year and exactly 400 for her career becoming the ninth player in program history to reach that plateau. West also had a .279 hitting percentage on the match and added six assist, and four aces while chipping in on the defensive end with one block and 14 digs.
 
Junior Selena Upshur had arguably her best match of the season as she had eight kills and a .211 hitting percentage, playing strong up the middle for Alverno as she also added a solo block and an assisted block to give her 20 blocks on the year. Upshur added four digs on the defensive side.
 
Freshman Natalie Onozie had 10 kills and four assists to go along with a dozen digs for her second double-double of the season. Classmate Sharisty Kooch tied her season-high with four kills, while also tying a season-high with four assists as she added one ace and nine digs to give her 99 on the year.
 
Sophomore Izzy Gianniou added nine assists and eight digs on the afternoon, while adding one ace. Freshman Breann Flannery had 15 digs and collected two assists; while classmate Jalea Taylor had one kill and combined on two blocks, while also adding one solo block in the effort.
 
Alverno and Benedictine went back-and-forth in the opening set with the Eagles edging out a late charge by the Inferno to pick up the 25-22 win.
 
The second set saw an evenly matched opening 16 points as the score was tied by each team on numerous occasions through the opening stretch as the score was knotted at eight. Alverno took a 10-8 lead on back-to-back aces by West before a kill by Benedictine, however, Alverno scored the next two on a kill by Kooch and a block by Upshur to put the Inferno ahead by three at 12-9.
 
Benedictine was only able to close the gap to one point at 13-12, before a 4-0 run by the Inferno stretched the lead to 17-12. Alverno led 22-14, before eventually closing out the set at 25-18 as Upshur collected a kill off of a feed by Onozie.
 
In the third, Benedictine opened a 12-7 advantage before the Inferno scored the next four on a pair of kills by Onozie and a pair of errors by Benedictine to close the lead to 12-11. The Eagles then rattled off four unanswered points and eight of the next nine to take a 20-12 lead before winning the set, 25-18.
 
Alverno led the fourth set by a 5-1 score in the early going as McMath got one kills and four unanswered aces. The Inferno lead swelled to 10-4 behind kills from West and Taylor, but Benedictine did not allow Alverno to pull further away as the Eagles tied the score at 19. The Inferno scored the next four points to take a 23-19 advantage, but Alverno was not able to close out the set as Benedictine scored the final six points to win the set 25-23.
 
Alverno (4-10, 0-4 NACC) will be back in action again on Tuesday evening, when they pay a visit to the Mulva Sports Center in De Pere, Wisconsin to take on St. Norbert at 7 p.m.