Toledo, Ohio— Toledo volleyball started off its weekend in a great way on Friday, taking down Tennessee Tech in three sets (25-23, 25-18, 25-20) and defeating New Mexico in four sets (25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 25-15). The wins bring UT's record to 5-6.

Senior Annie Beasley was the Rockets' leader with 10 kills against the Golden Eagles, her fourth time reaching double-digits this season. Freshman Chloee Kleespies had a good afternoon too, tying her career-high with nine kills and a new personal-best .474 attacking percentage. UT's nine total blocks were a season high for a three-set match, as were its 42 kills.

"It was a good match to win," head coach Greg Smith said after the win over Tennessee Tech. "Definitely good to see us come back like that after the weekend we had. We have to improve on what we did today, it wasn't as clean of a win as we would like, and tonight we have a tough match against New Mexico. We just have to be ready to go."

It's safe to say UT was ready to go.

Four Rockets reached double-digits in kills against the Lobos: Kleespies (15), senior Rachel Vidourek (11), senior Paige Thomas (10), and Beasley (10). The leaders in attack percentage were, again, Beasley (.474) and Kleespies (.433). Foster had a match-high 51 assists, the second time this season she had at least 50 in a match. After winning sets one and three, Toledo never trailed in the fourth set en route to its fifth win of the season.

"I'm proud of how we competed in the last two sets," Smith said. "We did a lot of really nice things. I'm just very proud of the way we finished tonight. New Mexico is a good team, they're a physical team. We just need to keep taking our steps and keep progressing. Every day we just have to get a little bit better."

Next up for the Rockets is a 3:00 p.m. affair with Youngstown State on Saturday afternoon. The Penguins went 1-1 on Friday: after getting swept by New Mexico, they came right back and swept Tennessee Tech.

Tennessee Tech
First Set: Toledo jumped out to an early 8-1 lead over TTU, with Beasley notching four of those first eight kills. Fueled by a pair of aces, the Golden Eagles came back to make the score 8-5, and they would continue to claw their way into contention, coming within one point, 19-18. But Toledo, never trailing in the first set, hung on to win 25-23; Thomas' kill sealed the deal for UT in the end. Beasley's four kills led all comers and three other Rockets had three: Thomas, freshman Emma Swope, and Kleespies. Toledo outhit Tennessee Tech .333 to .077 in the first frame.

Second Set: It was Tennessee Tech that grabbed the early lead this time, jumping out to a 4-2 advantage over Toledo. UT took advantage of a couple attack errors from TTU to retake the lead, the start of a stretch where it scored eight of the next 10 points to go ahead 10-6. The Rockets would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the set, going on to win 25-18. They scored seven of the final nine points, ending with a couple exclamation point kills from Swope and senior Rachel Vidourek.

Third Set: It was another fast start for the Rockets, who took a 4-0 lead over the Golden Eagles to kick things off. Tennessee Tech played about as well as it had all afternoon though and, after coming back from the early deficit, went on a run to take a 16-14 lead. It was the latest point in any set that TTU would have an advantage over Toledo, and the Golden Eagles led as late as 19-18. The Rockets put a stop to that pretty quickly; multiple kills both from Thomas and Kleespies helped UT surge ahead for good and win the third and final set, 25-20. The final set had seven ties and four lead changes, more than the first two combined.

New Mexico
First Set: The first frame was hotly contested to start, with both the Rockets and Lobos trading points early. As the set wore on, though, Toledo pulled away a bit, building a 15-11 lead at one point. Then, New Mexico rattled off five of the next six points to make it all square at 16-16. After falling behind 18-17, Toledo scored the next five points to take a 22-18 advantage, a run that was punctuated with an ace from freshman Caleigh Barhorst. The lead the Rockets built was enough to last through the end of the set, and they came away with a 25-21 win.

Second Set: It was another tight set early, with neither team going ahead by more than two points. The Lobos pulled away, though, after a stretch in which they notched eight of 11 points to take an 18-12 advantage, the largest lead for either team to that point. Four straight points from the Rockets brought it back within two, 18-16, and they would come within one near the tail end of the frame. However, trailing 24-23, UT would surrender the final point of the set, falling 25-23.

Third Set: Much like the two frames before this, neither team pulled away convincingly or for very long. Toledo did lead by five at one point (20-15), the largest lead of the night to that point, an advantage charged by big kills from senior Lauren Bakaitis and Thomas. New Mexico hung around though and came within two, but no closer. The 25^th and final point came from Kleespies on a play that brought the fans at Savage Arena to their feet. For both the Rockets and Lobos, the third set featured the highest attack percentage of the match through three sets.

Fourth Set: Coming in hot after a big win in the third frame, Toledo jumped out to a 5-2 lead thanks to big plays from Bakaitis and freshman Rhyen Neal, among others. The momentum built from the early lead carried all the way through the end of the set; New Mexico would bring the score to a 6-6 tie at one point, but the Rockets had no problem finishing off the Lobos, winning the fourth and final set handily by a score of 25-15. Toledo improved its hitting percentage in every set, culminating in a .361 mark in the fourth and final frame to seal the deal.


Highlights from Rocket victories over Tennessee Tech and New Mexico.