HOUSTON (9/2/23) – After splitting a doubleheader Friday at the Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial Tournament, the Arkansas State volleyball team moved back in the win column Saturday, sweeping Penn in three sets.

The Red Wolves (5-1) hit .268 in the match and held the Quakers (0-3) to a .196 mark. Bailey Helzer led all players with 16 kills on 37 swings, committing just three errors for a blistering .351 clip. Helzer added two aces and six digs to her line to go along with a block.

Setter Erin Madigan handed out 34 assists and tallied a pair of blocks and an ace.

Defensively, Sarah Martinez led the way with 16 digs, while Kaitlin Whitlock added 12 to go along with her seven kills on 20 attempts (.300).

After Penn led by a point early in the opening set, a 5-0 run sparked by two Helzer aces moved A-State ahead 8-4. The Scarlet and Black expanded the gap by as much as seven, but the Quakers worked the margin down to three later in the stanza. A kill by Yazmyn Billings handed A-State set point at 24-20, and then Helzer clinched the 25-22 first-set victory with a kill.

A-State overcame an early 4-0 deficit in the second set to take a 12-11 lead on a kill by Whitlock. A Helzer kill put the Red Wolves at set point ahead 24-20 before Madigan connected with Brianna Hollingshed for the kill to clinch the frame, giving Arkansas State a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-21 set victory.

The Red Wolves carried the momentum into the second set, leading by as much as seven early before the Quakers leveled the score at 13 on back-to-back service aces. A-State answered with a 5-0 run to reclaim a 20-16 lead and held on for the 25-22 win in the set to clinch the match.

NEXT UP

A-State continues its road stretch next Friday and Saturday in Carbondale, Ill., at the Saluki Bash. There, the Red Wolves will face Eastern Illinois, host Southern Illinois and Alabama A&M.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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