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Box Score 2 FRANKLIN, Indiana - At times it must have felt for the Mount St. Joseph University women's volleyball players they might not see this day during this pandemic year. Finally though they took the court to play against someone other than themselves. It was an extremely successful 2020-21 debut for Coach John Spinney and his young group of Lions. They traveled to take on Franklin College in their season opener, and head home after a pair of straight set wins.
"It was a privilege to finally get the opportunity to play a match. This has been a long time coming, I am so happy for the girls to finally get the chance to see the fruits of their labors. We were able to play a lot of our players today and even the ones who didn't play had a big impact on the matches" Said Coach Spinney.
The Lions opened the season with a three set win, despite winning the match in straight sets, the outcome was extremely close. They won three close sets 26-23, 25-22, 25-23 to secure their first victory of the season.
They did so on the back of an outstanding attacking effort by the reigning Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Freshman-of-the-year in Brooke Aselage. Aselage paced the offense with a match-high 11 kills. Outside of Brooke the Lions utilized a balanced offensive attack, with four players registering five or more kills. Freshman Grace Young and Emily Abshire had solid debuts for The Mount registering a total of 15 kills between them. Sophomore setter Sam Buschur also had a fantastic first outting, dishing out 30 assists, registering 17 digs and adding a pair of service aces.
The second match started off with another extremely close set, with the Lions taking set one 25-22. They then began to pull away from Franklin, with their two most decisive sets in the final two sets of the day (25-19, 25-20). It was again Aselage lead the Lions offense, pacing the squad with nine kills. Young and Kyla Henderson each contributed five kills, while sophomore libero Brooklyn Brunner had 20 digs in the three set affair.
Up next The Mount will welcome the Hanover Panthers to the Harrington Center on Wednesday for their first home matches of the season. The Panthers were picked to finish second in the HCAC in the pre-season coaches poll, so this will be a test for the young Lions.
As with all home games under the current direction of the HCAC, no fans will be in attendance for Wednesday's matches. To view live video coverage of the matches and all MSJ home games this season, head on over to our YouTube channel and subscribe! Please continue to follow MSJsports.com for all of your coverage of the Lions this season!
