Volleyball concludes a dominant week in home tri-match against North Carolina Wesleyan and Carolina University, winning both in straight sets.
Set one against NC Wesleyan was their tightest of the contest, staying within five points for most of the set. Where Salem found most of their points was from errors from the Bishops, supplemented by kills from Aspen Bradley, Sadie Rich, Ariana Noplos and Ella Brameus. The Spirits also secured their first two aces of the contest. They finished the set 25-18.
Set two was the Spirits most dominant of game one, starting out with Salem winning seven of the first ten points. Another Madison Bozarth serving run pulled them ahead midway through the set, halting some of the offensive momentum built up by the Bishops. Set two ended with seven unanswered points for the Spirits, securing the 25-12 win.
Set three transpired much like the first two, with Salem capitalizing on errors and making key defensive plays when it mattered most. With 12 kills, three aces and an offense that spread around to nearly everyone on the court, Salem secured set three 25-13.
This win brought their conference record up to 2-0 and their home winning streak to 24 straight.
Wanting to keep their momentum from game one going into game two, the Spirits came out swinging, winning a whopping 13 of the first 14 points of set one. The offense was firing on all cylinders, with eight of those first 13 points being kills. Carolina U was not going down easy, tacking on seven more points after going down 10-23. Bradley put an emphatic end to set one with her 16th kill of the day.
Set two started out much like set one, with Salem winning 11 of the first 13 points. Four of those points can be credited to Ellie Scherer, who started out firing from the outside. After going up 12-3, the Bruins found some momentum to bring the score up to 12-8, forcing a Salem timeout. This timeout was just what the doctor ordered, as the Spirits only dropped two more points on their way to a 25-10 win. The cherry on top to a great set was their 14 kills to zero errors.
Set three seemed to be heading in a similar direction after the Spirits went up 23-14, but the Bruins were not ready to be done. Stringing together some solid offense and capitalizing on a few unfortunate Salem errors, Carolina U secured seven more points. One final timeout from the Spirits at 24-21 brought Jacie Jarvis to the floor, who finished the day with a beautiful tip shot to secure a 25-21 win.
The Spirits will be back in action on Wednesday September 24th for a USA South Conference Tournament Finals rematch with Southern Virginia.
