SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Pittsburg State University volleyball team began the week with a five set heartbreaker on the road against the Drury University Panthers, Tuesday (Oct. 27) at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
Drury (18-6) claimed the match with set scores of 25-23, 28-26, 18-25, 22-25, 15-10. For the match, Pitt State (19-7) finished with a .145 hitting percentage from 61 kills while coming away with 17 blocks and a season-high 114 digs.
Crystal Smith finished with a team-high 16.0 points from 12 total blocks and nine kills, for her fourth double figure block performance of the season.
Vix Vilott led PSU with 13 kills, as
Maddi LaPointe (12),
Mason Palace (12) and
Maliyah Johnson (10) also finished in double figures.
Jesa Wallace (30) and
Brynna Zoeller (23) split setting duties.
Kassidy Nixon collected 29 digs to tie her season-high mark, Palace (21),
Alexis Bittner (18), Zoeller (11) and Wallace (10) were the other members of the team to collect double digit dig totals.
For DU, Chaney Barth and Skylar Hilton tied for the match lead with 17.0 points. Barth finished with a match-high 17 kills, Hilton recorded 12 kills and five total blocks (three solo). Jacy Bray set a new career high for assists with 52, adding in a match-high 30 digs and three kills in 11 attempts.
Pittsburg State will now shift focus to a pair of MIAA home matches against No. 23 Central Oklahoma and Newman this weekend. First serve from John Lance Arena on Friday (Oct. 30) against UCO is set for 6:00 p.m. (CT) and on Saturday (Oct. 31) against NU at 1:00 p.m. Friday will also serve as the annual Pink Game for the Gorillas.
Note: Crystal Smith moved into fifth in school history for total blocks in a season with 159. Smith moved past Linda Igbinigie (147, 2008) and Angie Palmer (151, 1991) during tonight's match. For the season the Jasper, Mo., native is averaging 1.71 total blocks a season which would be second among program ranks for a season behind only Gloria Ilariogun (2003) who finished with a school record 207 blocks (1.78) in 116 sets of action.
