Rockets Fall to Golden Flashes in Three Sets

Sunday, February 21

Toledo, Ohio

12:30 p.m.

University of Toledo

2-6,2-6MAC

Kent State

8-1,8-1MAC

Kent St.

Toledo

Senior Emma Swope tallied nine kills and a career-high 14 digs on Sunday afternoon against Kent State.

Photo by: Haley Boehm

2/21/2021 3:27:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo women's volleyball team (2-6, 2-6 MAC) dropped its second match of the weekend to Kent State (8-1, 8-1 MAC) on Sunday, falling in three sets (25-14, 25-19, 25-22) to the Golden Flashes.

"We strayed away from what Toledo Volleyball stands for this weekend," assistant coach Evan Antal said. "Kudos to Kent State. They came in and played really high-level volleyball and took us off our game. We will learn and grow from this moment moving forward."

Toledo was without head coach Jason Oliver for both games this weekend following the birth of his twin daughters last weekend.

Senior Emma Swope recorded a team-high nine kills and a career-high 14 digs, while classmate Chloee Kleespies registered six terminations. Junior Maddie Fogg was the Rockets' setter for the final two sets and had 15 assists. Senior Rhyen Neal (11) and junior Elise Wilcox (10) both registered double-digit dig totals on Sunday.

Kent State was once again led by Savannah Matthews, who had a match-high 17 kills and added 16 digs.

1^st set (Kent State, 25-14)
In Saturday's match, the Golden Flashes won the first set convincingly to set the tone for the rest of the contest. Sunday followed a similar script. Kent State jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but the Rockets kept within striking distance for much of the set. With the Rockets trailing 15-12, KSU got hot and scored 10 of the next 12 points to win 25-14 and take a 1-0 lead in the match. Swope and redshirt freshman Jada Bouyer both had three kills in the first set for Toledo.

2^nd Set (Kent State, 25-19)
Toledo took its first lead of the afternoon thanks to a kill from Swope to open up the second set, but the Golden Flashes answered that with a 10-1 run to take a commanding 10-2 lead. The Rockets weren't able to recapture the lead in the second stanza, falling behind 2-0 in the match. Toledo didn't go down without a fight though, churning out a 5-1 run late in the set, but KSU's Matthews delivered the final blow to hand the set to Kent State.

3^rd Set (Kent State, 25-22)
The third set of Sunday's match was the closest all weekend, featuring 14 tie scores and seven lead changes. Neither team led by more than three until Kent State captured the 25^th and final point to make it 25-22. The Golden Flashes scored three points in a row early on to take a 6-5 lead, but Bouyer and sophomore Rhyenne Filisi used consecutive kills to thwart any potential KSU run. The Rockets grabbed a two-point lead, 16-14, after a service ace from Neal and led as late as 19-18. A UT service error tied the score at 19-19, and Kent state tallied the next two points to take a 21-19 lead and didn't look back.