Air Force Academy
Nevada
Air Force Evens MW Record with Win Over Nevada
10/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
USAF ACADEMY, Colo. - The Air Force volleyball team evened its conference record this afternoon (Oct. 25) with a 3-1 victory over Nevada at the Academy's East Gym. With the team hitting at a combined .355 clip, the Falcons downed the visiting Wolfpack 25-18, 25-20, 18-25, 25-16 to improve to 5-5 in the Mountain West and 11-13 overall.
Four Falcons tallied double-digit kills and hit over .300 in the contest, as the team combined for a .355 hitting total - its second-best attacking average of the season. Junior Taylor Parker led the team with 14 kills and .476 average, while freshman Shelley Spires also hit over four-hundred (.409) with 10 kills. Juniors Maggie Sherrill (12 kills) and Akokwe Clement (10 kills) both hit over three-hundred, recording averages of .333 and .348, respectively. Senior Hillary Keltner, who accounted for 47 of the team's 52 assists, added three service aces to the Falcons' scoring output.
Defensively, junior Rachael Bradley Powers tallied 11 digs, while Spires and junior Raquel Rosas both tallied three assisted blocks.
Parker, Clement and Rosas put down kills for the first three points of the match, while Sherrill added a pair of scores to keep the Falcons up three (6-3). Parker added another kill, but Nevada evened the score at nine. The Falcons regained a two-point advantage (11-9) off of a service ace from Bradley Powers, while another kill from Clement kept the Falcons up two (15-13). Nevada closed the gap again on the ensuing point, but Spires put down a kill to spark a 7-1 run by the Falcons that included a kill from Parker, a solo block from Keltner and a combined stop from Parker and Spires (23-16). Forcing the visitors into back-to-back attacking errors, Air Force claimed the first set by a 25-18 margin.
The combination of Parker, Clement and Keltner opened the scoring in the second set, but the Falcons quickly found themselves at a 7-4 disadvantage. Clement halted the Wolfpack's 6-2 run with a pair of kills and sparked a 5-0 run for the Falcons, which included a block by Spires and Rosas, as Air Force took a 9-7 lead. Following a timeout by Nevada, the two teams traded points. Parker (three) and Spires (two) combining for the Falcons' next five points, while Sherrill put down a score to break a tie at 14-all. Rosas recorded a kill and assisted on a block (Spires) to give the Falcons a two-point lead (17-15), but the Wolfpack tied the set at 18. The Falcons broke the tie on the next point, while Parker added another kill to give Air Force a four-point lead (22-18). Spires and Keltner put down kills on back-to-back plays, while a long serve by Nevada gave the Falcons the 25-20 victory.
Despite kills from all five of the Falcons' attackers, Nevada took a 12-5 lead to start the third set. Air Force cut their deficit to three behind two kills from Parker, another score by Sherrill and a block from Parker and Keltner (13-9), while three Nevada errors and two Keltner aces helped the Falcons pull within one (15-14). The Wolfpack responded with 10 of the final 14 points to take the third set by a 25-18 score.
Nevada scored the first point of the fourth set, but Sherrill put down a pair of kills and recorded a solo block during 4-0 run by the Falcons that forced Nevada into an early timeout (4-1). The Wolfpack evened the score at five, but Clement tallied a pair of kills and assisted on a block (Keltner), as Air Force regained a three-point lead (8-5). Spires and Parker each tallied a pair of kills and junior Rebecca Bates added a service ace, as the Falcons powered to a 14-8 advantage. Rosas put down a pair of kills and Keltner added another ace, as the Falcons reached the 20-point plateau (20-12). Parker and Spires added kills, while a pair of scores from Sherrill capped the Falcons' 25-16 fourth-set victory.
"It's great to be .500 (in the conference)," head coach Matt McShane said. "The offense was incredible today. Nevada is a good team and they adjusted to cause problems for us in the third, but then we made our own adjustments for the fourth set. I'm very proud of the way they fought."
After four matches at the Academy, the Falcons head back out on the road next week for contests at Utah State (Oct. 30) and Boise State (Nov. 1).
