King’s College continued its dominance of the Marywood Pacers on Tuesday by taking them down for the sixth straight time. The King’s win streak began in 2017 and Marywood’s most recent defeat came in four sets, losing 3-1.
Marywood came in at 3-4 on the young season, trying to gain some consistency after dropping two of its last three games. The Monarchs have been playing well, standing with a 3-1 mark before their big win.
The first set was even early before the Pacers fell behind 4-3. Unable to surmount the Monarchs’ lead, they dropped the first set 25-18.
The second set began with the Pacers falling behind 7-2. Marywood was able to flip the script with a huge comeback to go ahead 11-10, behind the great work of junior Mikayla Meek. Meek was big in assists, finishing with 18. For the rest of the set, both teams jockeyed for the lead, with the Monarchs securing the set 25-20.
With the Pacers in a 2-0 set hole, they faced yet another deficit trailing 14-9. That didn’t stop the Pacers from roaring back and taking set three behind the leadership of both senior Casey Hagerstrom, who anchored the front with 9 kills, and freshman Gianna Norton who was all over the backend, finishing with 27 digs.
The Pacers, behind the encouragement of Coach Bill Shutter, looked to even it up in set four. The team could not maintain the momentum generated in the third set, as the Monarchs jumped out to a 11-1 lead and never looked back, winning handily by a final score of 25-15.
Despite the loss, Marywood had good showings from junior Libby Smith who had 9 kills, freshman Jaedyn Laws with 18 assists and senior Donna Bostjancic who finished with 7 digs.
Shutter wasn’t down on the loss as he wants his squad to use these non-conference games to address any issues that may arise before they kick off conference play on October 11 here at Insalaco Arena.
“This team has tons of potential as you can see from the third set and the resiliency is what gives everyone excitement for the rest of the year,” said Shutter.
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