The Muhlenberg volleyball team started off slow, but ended day two of the Buttermaker Tournament on a high note, taking down the Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Knights 3-1 after falling 3-2 to the SUNY Morrisville Mustangs in the morning.
The first two sets were ones to forget for the hosts, who went 6-0 in a pair of sweeps on Friday. The Mules bounced back in set three, however, taking advantage of a series of Mustang errors to notch an 11-10 advantage midway through the bout. Lizzie Steinkamp went on a 3-0 personal run a few points later with a kill and a pair of service aces to go up 15-12. Muhlenberg closed out its 25-19 set three win with a 3-0 stretch and brought that momentum into the next set, quickly going up 13-4 thanks to a 6-0 run.
That run featured kills from five different Mules, and Muhlenberg kept on rolling throughout on its way to a dominant 25-9 victory to knot the match at two. Aside from that run, the highlight of the set was when Andrea Romero-Agosto (pictured)Â tallied three straight service aces to make the score 20-6. That made up half of her career-high total of six in the match, one better than her previous career-high set yesterday against John Jay.
Finding themselves down 12-8 in the final set, the Mules stood their ground, ripping off five straight points to grab a 13-12 advantage. The Mustangs responded right back with some strong play of their own and claimed the set and match for themselves. Steinkamp and Abigail Oswari paced the Mules with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Maddy Budris collected 18 digs, and Jenny Ryan had 17.
Steinkamp and Oswari were also the stars of Muhlenberg's four-set win over Rutgers-Camden; Oswari had 15 kills and just one error for a .389 hitting percentage while Steinkamp notched 15 kills and three errors for a .293 mark. The effectiveness of the Mules' hitters was big for their setters as well, as they finished with 55 assists as a team, their most in a match this season.
After splitting a hotly contested first two sets, Muhlenberg ran out to an early 15-7 advantage. The hosts would hold that advantage until they led 24-14; at that point, Rutgers-Camden went on a 6-0 run that was stopped when Oswari swatted a well-placed ball onto the hardwood to win the set.
As does oftentimes in volleyball, the Scarlet Raptors brought that momentum into the next set and quickly went up 6-0. Undeterred, Muhlenberg ripped off a 7-1 run of its own to knot the score at 7. The two foes battled evenly for much of the next few rallies, but the Mules took control of the set after that, winning eight of the final 10 points to emerge with a 25-18 win.
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