FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Fairmont State swept Shawnee State 3-0 on Friday at Joe Retton Arena, winning 25-22, 25-12, 25-18. The Falcons finished with 45 kills and hit .224, while holding the Bears to 36 kills and a .114 hitting percentage. The win moved the Falcons to 11-4 overall and 1-0 in the Mountain East Conference.
The Falcons answered an early 5-4 deficit by winning seven of the next eight rallies, moving ahead 11-6 behind kills from
Josie Nobbe,
Kailyn Connelly and
Elena Thompson, a Nobbe service ace and a block by Connelly and
McKenzi Martin. At the start,
Averi Martin gave the Falcons their first kill of the set, and Nobbe added two early finishes as the teams traded points through the opening stretch.
The Falcons kept building through the middle of the set, getting kills from Thompson,
Belle DeVall,
Alexa Martin, Nobbe, Connelly and
McKenzi Martin to reach a 20-14 advantage. The Bears cut the margin to 23-21 late, but the Falcons reached set point on a Bears attack error and closed the set on Connelly's kill from
Belle DeVall for a 25-22 win.
The Falcons turned a 1-0 deficit into a 9-1 lead with nine straight points, including eight consecutive service points from Thompson and four straight Thompson aces. The Bears answered with three straight points to get to 9-4, but
Alexa Martin halted the stretch with a kill, and the Falcons continued to trade sideouts into kills from
Averi Martin, Nobbe,
Baylie Ostvig and Thompson.
Aubrey Haskins added a service ace,
Alexa Martin and Ostvig teamed on a block that helped make it 17-7, and
Alexa Martin followed with consecutive Falcons kills as the margin reached 19-8. The Falcons pushed the score to 22-9 on Thompson's serve, then closed the set with kills from
Ava Strange and Nobbe before a Bears bad set finished the 25-12 win.
The Falcons led from the opening point in the third set and finished a 25-18 win on
Alexa Martin's kill from
Belle DeVall. Early in the third, the Falcons scored the first four points behind kills from
Alexa Martin, Nobbe and
McKenzi Martin, with DeVall assisting each of those swings.
After the Bears closed the gap to 7-6, the Falcons answered with kills from
Averi Martin,
Zoe Ringer and
McKenzi Martin, then added an Ostvig-
Averi Martin block assist to build the score to 15-11. The Falcons later moved from 18-14 to 21-14 on a Ringer kill, a Bears attack error and an
Alexa Martin kill, and after the Bears scored twice at set point, Martin delivered the final swing for the seven-point set win.
Averi Martin led the Falcons with nine kills, hit .333 and added two block assists. Thompson collected seven kills, a team-high four service aces and 11 digs. Grace Devall recorded a team-high 26 digs.
Belle DeVall finished with 23 assists and nine digs.
Fairmont State (11-4) hosts Ursuline College on Saturday, September 19 for Youth Day. Match time is set for 2:00 p.m. with a post game autograph session to follow.
