ATCHISON, Kan. – The William Woods University volleyball team earned its first win of the season with a sweep, 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-18) over Benedictine College on Friday evening.
 
The Owls had a hitting percentage of .184 in the match. Tory Wiley and Rayleen Rivera led the Owls with 10 kills each. Remie Johnson led WWU with 19 assists. Jessica Jensen and Melanie Kala led the Owls with 12 digs each.
 
The Owls return to action on Tuesday, August 28th when they host Missouri Valley College at Anderson Arena. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
 
Game Flow
With the first set tied at 2-2, the Owls went on a 7-0 run that saw WWU take a 9-2 lead. During the stretch, the Owls Tory Wiley had three kills, Jaclyn Zahn had a kill and WWU took advantage of the Ravens errors. WWU could not put the Ravens away as they slowly chipped away at the Owls lead and after an Owl attack error, WWU's lead was down to two, 16-14. Benedictine came all the way back and a block by Sydney Wiedenmann tied the match at 17-17. WWU scored the next two points, 19-17, and never gave up the lead the remainder of the first set. With the Owls ahead 24-21, Rayleen Rivera recorded a kill giving the Owls the first set, 25-21.
 
In a seesaw battle in set two, neither team could gain an advantage in the set. A kill by Wiley put the Owls ahead 6-4 but the Ravens came back and tied the match at 6-6. With the Owls down 11-9, WWU scored four straight points taking an 13-11 lead. Benedictine came back and regained the lead and slowly stretched its lead to 19-14. William Woods would not go away as they chipped away at the Ravens lead. Back-to-back kills by Kira Krebill put the Owls down one, 21-20. After the Ravens stretched the lead to two, 22-20, the Owls scored the next three points. With the match tied at 23-23, the Owls Wiley gave WWU a lead of 24-23, and an attack error by the Ravens gave the Owls the set, 25-23.
 
Like the prior two sets, the Owls and Ravens went back and forth early in the set with neither team taking a commanding lead. With the match tied at 7-7, Rivera recorded a kill putting the Owls ahead 8-7. WWU could not pull away and the match would again be tied, this time at 10-10. WWU slowly pulled away as they took advantage of Benedictine errors and took a 15-10 lead. Benedictine would get as close as three points the remainder of the set. WWU's Rivera again came up with a big kill for the Owls as she put WWU  ahead 22-17. WWU scored the final two points, on a kill by Kira Krebill and an attack error and the Owls took set three, 25-18, sweeping the Ravens.
 
By the Numbers
61 – WWU had 61 digs as a team against the Ravens
10 – Tory Wiley and Rayleen Rivera had 10 kills each
19 – Remie Johnson led the Owls with 19 assists
4 – WWU had four blocks in the contest
3 – Jaclyn Zahn had three block assists in the match against the Ravens
12 – Melanie Kala and Jessica Jensen led the Owls with 12 digs each
.184 – WWU had an attack percentage of .184 against Benedictine
3 – The Owls had three aces in the match