Alverno College

LAGRANGE, Ga. – The Alverno volleyball team got their season started as the Inferno opened the season at LaGrange College, taking on North Carolina Wesleyan and host LaGrange. After dropping the opener, the Inferno flexed their muscle and swept host LaGrange in straight sets to go 1-1 on the season-opening afternoon.
 
Between the two matches, Alverno held the advantages in kills (73-62), hitting percent (.129-.090), assists (69-59), digs (106-101). In the win over LaGrange, the Inferno collected 36 kills and hit .159, while recording 35 assists, and 14 service aces.
 
Sophomore Rolin West led Alverno with 30 kills, and hit .226, and also added 14 digs on the defensive side of the ball. Senior Alex McMath was second on the day with 14 kills overall, and led the Inferno with 27 helpers and 27 digs, while adding 11 aces. McMath's nine aces against LaGrange, was one shy of the program single-match record, and also eclipsed her previous career high of seven set back in 2019.
 
Freshman Natalie Onozie had 12 kills on the afternoon, sophomore Izzy Gianniou had 14 assists, while junior Selena Upshur had seven kills and a pair of blocks. Freshman Sharisty Kooch had 21 digs, as classmate Breann Flannery had 21 digs. Lynnica Harley chipped in with three digs on the day.
 
Alverno vs. LaGrange
The Inferno rebounded well after the four-set loss earlier in the day, and followed it up with the win over LaGrange. In the match, McMath collected the most aces in a single match since 2015, when Genevieve Bauman tallied 10, to establish the program record against Great Lake Christian.
 
West had 16 kills, with McMath adding seven and Onozie collecting a half-dozen. Upshur led Alverno's defensive effort with a pair of blocks, while Kooch had 16 digs. Gianniou led with thirteen assists, while McMath was one shy off the pace of the team lead for the match.
 
Alverno opened up a 7-2 lead in the opening set, before the Cougars were able to tie the set at 15. A four-point run late in the set extended Alverno's lead to 23-18 as the Inferno went on to win 25-19.
 
The second set went in a similar form with the Inferno trailing 18-17 before rattling off five of the match's next six points to take a 23-18 lead again, eventually taking the second set by a 25-20 mark.
 
The Inferno fell behind 5-3 in the third set but seven-point run by the Inferno put Alverno ahead for good as the visitors from Milwaukee took the third by a 25-21 score.
 
Alverno vs. North Carolina Wesleyan
The Inferno dropped the first two sets to the squad from North Carolina Wesleyan, 25-17 and 25-20.
 
In the third, Alverno fought back from a 7-4 deficit to even the score at eight. After the Bishops took a 14-8 lead, the Inferno rattled off a lengthy run of eight unanswered points to regain control at 16-14. The score was then tied at 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 before North Carolina Wesleyan opened a 23-20 lead.
 
The gritty Inferno squad finished off the set with five unanswered points to take the third set, 25-23 to trail two sets to one. Another close set in the fourth was taken by the Bishops at 25-19.
 
Up Next
Alverno (1-1) will take on Huntingdon at 3:00 p.m. (EST)/2:00 p.m. (CST) on Saturday afternoon at the Richter Gymnasium on LaGrange's campus.