VOLLEYBALL

It was sweet revenge for the Huntington volleyball team Wednesday night at the Hutzell Athletic Center where the visitors outlasted Saint Francis (5-19, 3-9) in four, 19-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-18. With this W, HU splits their regular season series with the Cougars and ends the nine-game win streak their neighbors to the northwest had lorded over them since 2017.

While winning on the road in the always-competitive Crossroads League is never easier, even more impressive is winning on the road in come-from-behind fashion. After dropping the first set and staring at a 17-14 deficit in set two, Herber’s crew turned things around by piecing together an epic 10-2 run to surge ahead 24-19 on the way to eventually riding out the set two victory.

It was smooth sailing after that as once HU established a lead midway through each of the next two sets, they wouldn’t surrender their advantage to cruise to their 12th win of the year.

“I was proud of how we bounced back after a rough start,” said Coach Kelsey Herber. “We are the best versions of ourselves when we play fiercely and freely, and we executed that in sets two, three and four.”

Despite USF logging two more kills than their guests, it was HU’s offensive efficiency that paved the way to their success. Huntington posted a season-best .290 hitting percentage to Saint Francis’ .136 behind nine kills apiece from De’Janea Johnson, Abby Robinson and Anna Lewis.

Morgan Robrock handed out 36 dimes in the winning effort in addition to tallying two solo blocks and assisting another. Lewis and Tya Bynum also finished with 2.5 blocks each.

“Morgan and Anna did a fantastic job blocking Saint Francis’ outside attackers and Hannah did a great job reading on defense,” noted Herber. “Our middles were effective for us and became unstoppable.”

The Foresters have posted back-to-back wins as they improve to 12-16 overall, 4-9 in league play. Next up is a home match against Grace on Friday at 7:00 p.m.