MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner took care of business against new SSAC foe Wesleyan at Tine Davis Gymnasium on Saturday, as the Lady Eagles (8-9, 3-2 SSAC) rode huge runs to dominating margins in the first and third sets and came back to fend off the Wolves (0-14, 0-4 SSAC) in the second one (25-8, 25-22, 25-11) to hand the latter their 11th loss via sweep this season.
After surrendering an opening kill, the Lady Eagles ripped off a 14-1 run helped by six Wesleyan errors as the only point for the guests in the span was on a service error. Caroline Sticker fired three aces in the run, Riley Deem and Jakaya Smith scored two kills, and Aubrie Hinson earned a kill and a block assist with Madison Martin. Following a kill by Wesleyan libero Ella Allison, Faulkner built a 7-1 run with three Wolf errors, also only interrupted by a service error. Smith scored two kills off assists by Chasity Broadhead, Hinson scored one off the dish from Olivia Kelly, and Jo Lundy served an ace. Emmagin Spencer scored kills for points 22 and 23, and Sticker finished off the dominant frame with a kill and an ace. Faulkner scored 11 kills to Wesleyan's four, with just two errors to the latter's eight to take the hitting battle .360 to -.190.
The Lady Eagles then spotted the Wolves a 3-0 lead in the second set that grew to 5-2 before tying it on a Hinson kill, a bad set and a Maddie Harden ace and taking their first lead on consecutive kills by Martin. From there, the teams went back and forth for most of the set, including three straight service errors at one point. Faulkner scored three straight points on a Smith kill, a block by her and Emma Hayes and an attack error for its biggest lead of the set at 19-15 before Wesleyan scored four straight points to tie it back up. Tied at 21, Hayes earned a side out with a kill before Sticker tallied another ace and kill for set points and Spencer finished off the frame with a kill. Serve-receive proved to be the difference as Wesleyan had one more kill and narrowly outhit Faulkner .263 to .250 in the frame.
The hosts scored first in the third set and grew the lead to 11-1. Smith opened with a kill ahead of another ace by Sticker, kills from Deem, Spencer and Hinson and a pair of attack errors for the early 7-0 advantage. After a Wesleyan kill, Faulkner got the ball back with a Spencer kill before Deem fired consecutive aces. After another back-and-forth period of time, Hinson got a kill to give her team 20 in the frame before Harden fired three straight aces, the first of them marking the second point in the set Wesleyan surrendered due to a rotation error on serve-receive. The Wolves scratched back two points on a kill and a set error, but Spencer came in the clutch once more with a kill off the assist from Harden before Avery Dunnam called game with a solo block, good for her second point in the second game of her career. Faulkner dominated the hitting battle .409 to .000 with five more kills and four fewer errors.
The Lady Eagles dominated the stat sheet in kills 36-25, aces 13-1, errors 9-19 and hitting percentage .325 to .072. All the aces came from three players, with Sticker firing six, Harden four and Deem two. Sticker also led the team in digs with nine. Smith was the only player on either team with at least 10 kills as she just hit the double-digit threshold. Spencer was just behind her with eight and Deem and Hinson each scored five. Broadhead dished out 16 assists, with Harden behind her with nine and Kelly putting up six in just one set of action.
Faulkner travels to Life next Friday night for a 5 pm CT first serve.
