TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo women's volleyball team swept Kent State at home on Saturday, the third straight three-set victory for the Rockets.
"This was a great win," head coach Jason Oliver said. "To finish off the weekend like that was really important to our team. I thought Kent State played well and brought a ton of energy and we had to respond to that with good, clean play. Our offense showed up and really led the way for us. We have to defend our home court and we were able to do that this weekend, this was a big win for us."
Toledo (12-4, 3-1 MAC) held the Kent State (6-10, 1-3) offense in check for the second straight day, forcing the Golden Flashes to hit just .059 after holding them to a sub-.000 attack percentage on Friday.
Junior Rhyenne Filisi was a force on Saturday with a season-high seven blocks. Sophomore Taylor Alt led all players with 11 kills and added 12 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Junior Olivia Vance collected 10 kills and four blocks, while sophomore Rachel Pierce tallied nine kills while hitting .643. Freshman Elaine Redman contributed 37 assists and tied her season-high with four blocks.
Toledo hits the road for a pair of matches next weekend at Buffalo and Akron.
1st Set (Toledo, 25-18)
Kent State scored the first point of the day on a service ace, but that would be the only time it led in the first set. Toledo used an 8-2 run to pull away at one point, making the score 17-9. The Rockets' lead grew to double digits at 21-11, but Kent State put together a little comeback of its own to close the gap a bit until the scoreboard read 24-18. Redman sealed the deal with a block, though, to put Toledo up 1-0 in the match.
2nd  Set (Toledo, 25-20)
The Rockets came out firing, taking a 6-1 lead with three points coming from Alt. Kent State fought back to tie it up at 7-7, then took the lead at 11-10. Junior Sina Uluave came through with a kill to make it 11-11, then a termination from Alt put the Rockets back in front at 12-11. The Golden Flashes didn't go down quietly, tying the score as late as 18-18, but once again Uluave put Toledo in the lead and this time they wouldn't give up a share of the lead. Redman tallied the 25th point for the second straight set and put the Rockets ahead 2-0 in the match.
3rd  Set (Toledo, 25-16)
Kent State held an 11-9 lead over the Rockets before they scored six straight points to make it 15-11. The match was never really in doubt from that point forward, as Toledo dominated the final stages of the third set en route to a 25-16 win. Vance brought about match point with a kill to make it 24-15, then successfully terminated a pass from Redman for the clinching point.
