The No. 16 Taylor volleyball team opened play Tuesday at the NAIA National Championship in Sioux City, Iowa, with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 26-24) sweep of No. 11-ranked Vanguard (Calif.). It was the first of three pool play matches for the Trojans, who are playing in their first national tournament since 2001.
Taylor (36-5) took advantage of eight team blocks to overpower Vanguard (17-13), members of the highly competitive Golden State Athletic Conference. Led by NAIA kills leader Kelsey Pritchard with 14 kills, Taylor hit at .301 in the match compared to .208 for the Lions.
"This was the start we'd been envisioning in preparation for this tournament," Taylor head Coach Brittany Smith said. "We've talked about taking this week one match at a time and the team responded very well to a new environment for all of them."
Jackie Geile joined Pritchard in double figures with 13 kills on 27 swings. Setter Betsy Brown came up with 33 assists to direct the Taylor offense. Anchoring the back row was libero Courtney Herschberger, who recorded 15 digs. Geile and Kristen VandeBunte each had five block assists to lead the Trojans at the net.
Taylor jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the match, and never let go of the lead. The Trojans took advantage of five Vanguard service errors to build their largest lead at 14-9. A 6-1 Vanguard run tied the score at 23-23, but a kill by Rachel Kizer followed by an attack error by the Lions gave Taylor the win.
The second set went back and forth in the early going before Taylor gained the lead for good at 7-6 on a kill by Pritchard. Six different Trojans had kills as the team hit at an eye-popping .560 for the set to go up 2-0 in the match.
The Trojans claimed the third and final set 26-24 in the most competitive of the afternoon. With the score tied at 23-23, Pritchard sandwiched two kills around a Taylor service error to give the Trojans a 25-24 lead. On the ensuing serve, Geile hammered home match point on a kill from Brown.
Making their fifth national tournament appearance, the Trojans committed just two service errors in the match, while Vanguard had nine miscues from the service line.
"We really emphasized aggressive serving and consistent serve receive all week in practice," Smith said. "That was an area we thought we could have an edge, and we saw the dividends of that today."
Playing in their second NAIA National Championship, the Lions were led by senior Kelsey Wirt with 21 kills.
At No. 11 in the nation, Vanguard is the highest ranked opponent Taylor has beaten in head coach Brittany Smith's five-year tenure.
