TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo women's volleyball team played its longest match of the season on Tuesday, falling to Oakland in five sets at Savage Arena.
The Golden Grizzlies won the first set, 25-23, before the Rockets bounced back and won the next two sets by identical 25-22 scores. Oakland won the fourth set, 25-20, to force a decisive fifth set, where both teams battled until the very end. The fifth set featured 14 tie scores and five lead changes and, despite its best efforts, Toledo wound up losing, 22-20. Tuesday's fifth set was Toledo's longest since Oct. 31, 2019 when it played a 23-21 fifth set at Ball State.
"We showed a lot of grit and a lot of fight in big moments tonight," head coach Jason Oliver said. "I obviously wanted things to go the other way for us, but Oakland had a good player that was hot near the end and they were able to find a way to win. I'm happy with the fight we showed. That's something we didn't have last weekend, and we're starting to learn that we can be in type of mindset. Now we just need to be able to execute at a higher level."
Four Rockets reached double-digits in kills on Tuesday, led by senior Taylor Alt's 21 terminations. Fifth-year senior Rhyenne Filisi and sophomore Izzy Granger both tallied 12 kills, and senior Abby Erickson collected 11 kills. Granger and Alt registered 20 digs and 12 digs, respectively, and senior Payton Morman joined them in putting up a double-double. Morman had 36 assists and 11 digs, splitting setting duties with freshman Macy Hatkevich who had 21 assists. Fifth-year senior Ryann Jaqua led Toledo with 21 digs.
Toledo had a season-best 17 blocks against Oakland. Erickson had a career-best eight blocks and Filisi was close behind with seven. Freshman Emily Honzelka appeared in the starting lineup and tallied six blocks, giving her 13 across her last two matches.
Toledo will face Notre Dame twice this weekend. The Rockets will head to South Bend on Friday for a 6:30 p.m. match before returning to Savage Arena to host the Fighting Irish on Sunday, Sept. 17 at 1:00 p.m.
1st Set (25-23, Oakland)
Toledo scored the first point of the match, a kill from Alt, but Oakland zoomed out to an 11-5 lead after that. The Rockets spent the rest of the set battling to regain the lead, and they did eventually do so after scoring seven straight points late. Trailing 21-17, UT went on a 7-0 run to take a 22-21 lead. Following an Oakland timeout, though, the visitors regained the momentum and scored four of the final five points to win, 25-23, and put Toledo in a 1-0 hole to begin the night.
2nd Set (25-22, Toledo)
Both teams battled early, but a 6-0 Rocket scoring spurt in the middle of the set gave them the lead for good. Senior Jada Bouyer's kill sparked the run, which helped UT take a 14-10 lead. Toledo's lead grew to as big as eight, 20-12, but it did need to withstand a late Oakland surge. The Golden Grizzlies pulled within two very late, but an untimely service error gave Toledo the 25th point it needed to win the set and even the match at 1-1.
3rd Set (25-22, Toledo)
The third set followed a similar script as the one that preceded it, as Toledo pulled ahead early and led for the bulk of play. A kill off the hand of Alt put the lead at five, 20-15, before Oakland once again staged a comeback attempt. The Rockets' lead dwindled to one, 23-22, but they would stand tall in the face of adversity. They held firm for the next two points to win, 25-22, and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
4th Set (25-20, Oakland)
With their backs against the wall, the Golden Grizzlies led wire-to-wire in the fourth set. Oakland opened the fourth set with four straight points and didn't look back, leading by as many as seven at one point. Oakland hit a match-high .333 in the fourth set and won, 25-20, extend the match.
5th Set (22-20, Oakland)
Toledo trailed 11-8 in the fifth set, but scored three straight to tie the score at 11-11. Facing a match point moments later, Alt's kill tied the score at 14-14 and kept the Rockets alive. That proved to be just the start of the back-and-forth affair between Toledo and Oakland, as both teams forced four match points apiece. UT brought about match point at 19-18, but that would be the final time it held a lead all night. Oakland scored two straight to make it 20-19 and, after a block from Erickson and Filisi tied it up at 20-20, the Golden Grizzlies tallied the next two points to end the match.
