WSU Women’s Volleyball | Photo by Joe Craven | Edited by Kayli Thompson | The Wright State Guardian
The Wright State Raider Volleyball Team started their season on the road with two wins over the Milwaukee Panthers. The wins were both 3-0 sweeps, giving WSU a perfect start to the spring 2021 season.
The Raiders’ dominance came from using Milwaukee’s errors while limiting their own. The Panthers had 50 errors over both games, while WSU only had 16.
The Players to watch over the weekend were WSU’s Sophomore duo of Lainey Stephenson and Jenna Story, with Stephenson contributing 50 assists in both games, and Story securing 30 digs for the Raiders.
Game one
The Raiders took early leads in Set one and two, with kills from Juniors Celia Powers and Teddie Sauer breaking the Panther defense and forcing timeouts.
Jenna Story’s digs kept the Raiders in the lead, and with kills from sophomore Sam Wolf securing sets one and two, WSU had a 2-0 lead, with a 25-18 first set and a 25-19 second set.
While Wright State controlled the first two sets, as each had only one lead change, Milwaukee kept fighting in set 3 to avoid a sweep, forcing 14 ties and five lead changes in the set before a service ace from Celia Powers ended Milwaukee’s fighting with a 22-25 set.
This win was the first time the Raiders have beat the Panthers on the road since 1996: a 3-1 win.
Game two
The Raiders collected their second sweep in a row with the team hitting .287 while crushing Milwaukee to only .008. While all three sets in game one was relatively close, the Panthers barely scored 15 in two of their three sets.
Set one was a quick Panther start with an ace, but forced Panther errors gave Wright State the lead back, whose four errors all game denied the Milwaukee offense, securing the first set 25-16
In set two and three the Raiders forced error after error for the Panthers, with the Panthers 27 errors securing a Raider lead all match, with the Raiders winning set 2 25-13 and set 3 25-15.
Stephenson led the offense with 24 assists, and Story’s 14 digs gave the Raiders such a dominant game.
Looking Ahead
The Raiders will face off next against Northern Kentucky, the defending HL champions, on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2. WSU will be looking for revenge against the Norse as they ended Wright State’s 1-seed championship run last season.
