JACKSONVILLE –
Claire Ochs and
Katie Montgomery reached big milestones in Jacksonville State volleyball's sweep of Bellarmine (25-20, 25-13, 25-15) on Saturday evening.
Ochs, a graduate transfer setter from Chesterfield, Mo., recorded her 5000
th career assist on the match's final play. With JSU leading 24-15 in the third set, Ochs guided the ball perfectly to fifth-year outside hitter
Lena Kindermann, who placed an accurate attack between two defenders to end the quick ASUN affair. The assist was her 32
nd of the night.
Montgomery's accomplishment did not take as long to occur. The fifth-year middle blocker ended the first set with a right-side attack that snuck through. As a result, the Southern Utah transfer tallied the 800
th kill of her college career.
Those special moments, compounded with a nice crowd on hand to see a dominant outing, led to an unforgettable night in Jax State's Breast Cancer Awareness Match.
"I thought the hard work we put in this week at practice showed a lot more today," Jacksonville State head coach
Todd Garvey said. "We were clicking again offensively and playing great defense."
After some recent struggling offensive performances, Jacksonville State was finally able to get off to a hot start on Saturday night. The Gamecocks hit .273 against the Knights in the opening set, taking an early lead and taking advantage of Bellarmine errors to secure a 25-20 set victory.
The second was much more decisive. An 8-0 scoring run in the middle of the interval helped JSU out to a big lead. Garvey's squad never looked back en route to a blowout, 25-13.
Both the offense and defense shined for Jax State in the third set. JSU hit .444 as a team and forced BU into five costly errors. A pair of big scoring spurts took it from a 10-5 difference to a 19-7 lead for Jacksonville State. Their smothering defense kept the Knights off balance, resulting in a 25-15 set triumph to finalize the three-set sweep.
The Gamecocks hit .360 as a team, one of their best outings as a team, and held the Knights to a team hitting percentage of just .144.
One day after tallying her 300
th career kill, senior
Zoe Gonzales led the way with 11 kills and two blocks against Bellarmine. The Longmont, Colo., product finished with a game-high .625 hitting percentage. Kindermann and Montgomery had ten kills each, hitting .409 and .563 respectively. Riemersma ended up with six kills and a pair of blocks as well.
Ochs' 32 assists were a match-high and senior
Erin Carmichael led the way with 15 digs. Senior
Kylee Quigley had nine digs, Ochs added seven, and sophomore
Brooklyn Schiffli finished with six digs.
"Claire did a great job of getting both our middles going early and often," Garvey said. "When we have our middles going like that offensively it frees up the rest of our offense. I also thought we served and serve received well today."
Jacksonville State returns to action next weekend on the road. The Gamecocks play at 11 a.m. Friday against North Florida before playing Jacksonville at 5 p.m. Saturday. Both ASUN Conference matches will be played at Swisher Gymnasium, on the campus of Jacksonville University, due to construction at UNF Arena.