ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The #13 Carthage College Lady Reds split their final matches of the 2018 Bear Invitational on Saturday, topping Birmingham-Southern University in a sweep before falling the host, Washington University, in four sets.
With the split the Lady Reds move to 5-3 on the season, while Birmingham-Southern falls to 5-2 and Wash U. improves to 6-2.
#13 Carthage 3, Birmingham-Southern 0
Carthage opened Saturday with a win despite sloppy play by both teams throughout the match. The Lady Reds opened with just seven kills in the opening set and hit a meager .053, but the Panthers committed 13 errors and hit .000 in the set to give the Lady Reds the 1-0 lead. For the match the Lady Reds hit .129 with 37 kills and 19 errors, but it was more than enough as BSU finished with 34 kills, 23 errors and a .076 attack.
Megan Behrendt tied for a match-high with 12 kills and
Ellie LeCount handed out 26 assists to lead the Lady Reds. Behrendt, along with Laura De Rosales had the only two aces.
Defensively, the Lady Reds dominated. Carthage had nine blocks for the match, led by
Nicole Acton with six and followed by
Linda Morton with four and
Katie Laio with three. In addition to the play at the net, the Lady Reds registered 76 digs as a team with four players digging in double-digits. Behrendt led Carthage with 18 digs, followed by
Sarah Grabowski with 13,
Megan Dawrant with 12 and LeCount with 11.
#19 Wash U. 3, #13 Carthage 1
Carthage started the final match of the weekend on the right foot, hitting .312 in the first set and committing just three attack errors to take a 1-0 lead, but the momentum swung in the second set and the Lady Reds struggled from there on, finishing the match with a .109 and 27 attack errors over the final three sets.
After struggling in the first set with seven errors and a .154 attack, the Bears committed just eight errors the rest of the way and hit .215 for the match.
Megan Behrendt led Carthage once again in kills and blocks with 13 and 20 respectively, and
Ellie LeCount had 29 assists and 12 digs in the loss. Laura De Rosales rounded out the Lady Reds defense with 12 digs.
After spending their opening two weekends on the road, the Lady Reds will now get to return home to Tarble Arena for a match Wednesday with in-state rival, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m.
