Maryville used the first of two midweek nonconference matchups to hopefully set itself up for a solid second half of the regular season.
The Scots took care of Asbury 3-0, winning by set scores of 25-9, 25-18 and 25-16.
The victory improved Maryville's record to 12-8 overall and 5-3 in its first season of play in the new Collegiate Conference of the South. That's fourth place – not where the Scots want to end up when the season ends. Maryville trails the three teams they have lost to in league play: Huntingdon, Berea and Covenant are all 7-1.
"We have been playing really good ball up till now," Maryville head coach Kandis Schram said. "Even the league ones we lost; we just couldn't finish. Tonight's focus was eliminating the streakiness and trying to manage the emotion of our team – not have real high highs and real low lows.
"Tonight was a terrific opportunity to do that against a good team. I wanted us to be able to keep our foot on the pedal and just really push it, and tonight gave us that chance."
Maryville Starts Fast
Maryville breezed in the first set, opening leads of 5-0, 8-1 and 13-2. Asbury drew within nine points late, but it was all Scots in a 25-9 opening score line. Hannah Potts had five of her team-leading 10 kills in that opening set, and Landry Frisch had five of her eight kills.
In Set 2, play was back and forth early with several ties and a couple of lead changes. Asbury then scored five in a row for a 14-9 edge. After a Scots timeout, Maryville bounced back and outscored the visitors 16-4 the rest of the way for a 25-18 win. Amii Ingalls and Isabella Samson contributed three kills apiece and Meredith Bonee had seven assists and five big digs.
In the final set, there were five ties early until Maryville took the lead for keeps at 11-10 on a Potts kill. She had two more kills for the set, Ingalls contributed four, Samson three and Frisch one. Bonee assisted on all 11 kills as the Scots finished on a 15-6 run.
Maryville had a 6-0 edge in service aces and a 5-0 margin in team blocks. Ingalls was the closest to a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs, while Ally Sokolow was the digs leader with 11. Bonee finished with 31 assists.
Maryville as a team posted a .320 hitting percentage to Asbury's .051.
Next for the Scots is a trip west. They play at Mississippi-Women in a Friday non-league match before taking on host Belhaven and Piedmont in Saturday's CCS tri-match.
"This is the first time we are going to Belhaven, and we are going to make the most of it," Schram said. "Hopefully, we can start this conference second half off and just get better every day."
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