The Muhlenberg Mules had much to celebrate Friday evening, taking down the Hood Blazers and the John Jay Bloodhounds 3-0 in a pair of sweeps on day one of the Buttermaker Tournament.
The hosts started off hot, scoring six of the first seven points in the initial set. That run was punctuated by a pair of service aces by Abigail Oswari, a theme that would continue for the Mules throughout the day. They finished with a season-high 17 aces in just three sets, seven more than their previous season best of 10.
Hood would inch closer over the rest of the set, but Muhlenberg closed it out on an ace by Bailey Crampton. The next two sets were all Muhlenberg, as the hosts claimed them by scores of 25-10 and 25-13. Lizzie Steinkamp finished with a match-high nine kills with just two errors for a .368 hitting percentage, while Andrea Romero-Agosto bested her in that category with a mark of .462 (seven kills and one attack error). Freshman Natalie Ma led the team in service aces with a career-best of five, one more than she had totaled in the season to that point. Jenny Ryan paced the Mules in assists with 18 while tacking on four aces as well.
Despite an extended break while the other match finished, the Mules stayed hot in the second contest of the evening, hitting a blistering .529 in the first set against John Jay. The duo of Oswari and Romero-Agosto were just too much for the Bloodhounds to handle; Oswari tallied five kills in the set, and Romero-Agosto had four. The pair kept that up throughout the entire match, finishing with 12 and 10 apiece, respectively. Oswari notched her 12 putwaways on a .391 hitting percentage, while Romero-Agosto didn't record a single error and ended up with 10 kills on 11 attacks for a nearly perfect .909 mark.
While the final score of the second set was a relatively close 25-19, the Mules had the contest in hand all the way, finishing off their 6-game sweep with a 25-16 win. In this match, it was Ansley Asche and Romero-Agosto who dominated from the service line. Asche totaled six service aces, double her previous career high of three, while the sophomore also set a career high with five aces of her own. Asche also paced the hosts in assists with 21.
The Mules will look to continue their success into day two of the Buttermaker Tournament tomorrow, when they play a doubleheader against SUNY Morrisville and Rutgers-Camden.
