HOUGHTON, Mich. - Sophomore Danielle McQuade had 22 kills and freshman Tiffany Buchinger had a career-high 52 assists as the Tiffin University volleyball team (4-11, 4-5 GLIAC) came from behind to beat Michigan Tech (2-12, 0-9 GLIAC) 3-2 (25-19, 21-25, 9-25, 25-20, 17-15), Friday night at SDC Gym.
In the first set, Tiffin jumped out to an early 6-3 lead. Michigan Tech fought back with a 7-4 run, forcing an error to tie the match at 10-10.
The Huskies got a kill from Alex Schwalbe to make it 18-14. The Dragons closed the set on a 7-5 spurt. Freshman Keyonna Gregory and sophomore McKenzie Wright stuffed Abby DeWitt to get the win.
The second set saw MTU storm out to a 9-5 lead. TU came back with a 5-3 run to make it 12-10. The remainder of the set, saw Michigan Tech go up by 3-4 points with Tiffin rallying to a point or two.
Wright pounded a set from Buchinger down the middle. That made it 22-20, Huskies. MTU would take two of the next three points to even the match at 1-1.
In the third set, Michigan Tech came out of the gates with a 10-2 clip and never looked back. The Huskies hit .458 while holding the Dragons to a -.034 hitting percentage.
In the fourth set, the squads traded points for the early part. At 15-15, MTU went on a 4-2 run to lead 19-17. TU came back with a kill from junior Maureen Kurtz and a block from Kurtz and freshman Erin Turner. That made it 19-19.
Michigan Tech got a kill down the sideline from Schwalbe to go up 20-19. That would be its last point of the set as Tiffin scored the next six points. A blast from Turner sent the match into a fifth set.
In the deciding set, once again the Huskies looked to be in control. Down 10-7, the Dragons responded with a 4-1 burst. TU blocked Brianna Wethal to make it 11-11.
After that the two teams slugged it out. Wright got a kill to put Tiffin one away from the win but MTU forced an error to make it 15-15. However kills from Wright and Kurtz sealed the deal for the Dragons.
For Tiffin, McQuade added 10 digs and hit .372 for the match. Wright had a solid match with 14 kills, three solo blocks and five total blocks. In addition to McQuade, three other Dragons had double digits in digs; senior Lindsay Heller with 21, sophomore Jordan Jenkins with 16 and Buchinger with 11.
Heller now has 1409 career digs. She is in 11th place and needs just three digs to pass Jessica Swartz (1996-99) for 10th (1411).
For Michigan Tech, Schwalbe had 16 kills and Shelby Jones had 12 kills and 14 digs. DeWitt collected 11 digs and Andria Nyenhuis had five service aces.
Tiffin remains on the road, Saturday, Oct. 8, taking on Northern Michigan. The match is scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m.
-TIFFIN UNIVERSITY-
