Albany falls to Truman

Jack Nicholl

Truman was favored to win in the opening round, but it wasn't supposed to be this easy.

The No. 1 Bulldogs (35-5) defeated No. 8 Albany State (21-15) -6, -18, -14 in the opening round of the South Central Regional tournament. Truman will face No. 4 Emporia State in the second round Friday night.

"If we would have had to play [Albany] earlier in the season, the outcome probably would have been a little bit closer," junior right side hitter Eli Medina said. "It kind of shows that we have grown as a team and [hopefully] we can keep that focus for all three games.

Truman went on to demolish Albany in the first game after losing the first point of the match. The Bulldogs had a 17-point streak in the middle of the game coupled with two six-point streaks. Truman hit a commanding .385, with only one error, in game one while holding Albany to a -.100 percentage. Medina had more kills than Albany's whole team with five kills to Albany's four.

Truman head coach Jason Skoch said that in matches like these Truman has to work hard to keep their focus. He said Truman can't take a team like Albany lightly because they are capable of winning if the Bulldogs let their guard down.

Game two was more competitive than the first, but Truman kept a commanding lead the entire time. Albany was able to improve their hitting percentage to .269, but Truman responded, hitting .426.

Truman's offense was unstoppable in the third and final game. The 'Dogs tallied 22 kills to only three errors and a .704 percentage. Albany had only six kills and a .200 percentage in the final game. Truman finished the match with a .519 kill percentage compared to only .105 from Albany State.

Truman had a solid performance from freshman libero Casey Bruno, who started in place of senior Whitney Boehler. Head coach Jason Skoch couldn't comment on Boehler's status, and she is questionable for Friday's semifinal.

Bruno's performance included three assists and five digs, but her biggest accomplishment was serving 16 of the 17 points in Truman's streak in game one. The 16-point streak tied a NCAA Div. II record and set a new school record for consecutive service points. Bruno tallied seven service aces in the run, helping Truman to 15 aces on the night.

Page 1 of 2 next >

Be the first to comment on this story