Hilltopper Volleyball takes down Colgate 3-1

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Right side hitter Kenadee Coyle had a career morning with a high 14 kills in the Hilltopper’s 3-1 victory over reigning Patriot League champion, Colgate. As a team hitting .375 in the fourth set, WKU also collected seven service aces from the line and out-blocked the Raiders in Rec Hall.

Redshirt-freshman Logan Grevengoed had an afternoon on the court with a .273 hitting clip and eight kills and four blocks off the net. Freshman Gabby Weihe gained her fifth career start to add with seven kills and four more blocks in the front row.

WKU 3, Colgate 1: 25-21, 25-20, 22-25, 25-23

Set 1

The Hilltoppers opened up the board on the right side with a double block from Kenadee Coyle and Gabby Weihe to get things rolling inside Rec Hall. The Raiders would then take on a 3-0 run, that got cut short by an opposite side Coyle kill. The Tops would make it 5-3 after their own 4-0 run that featured an Abby Schaefer ace and kill from Logan Grevengoed in the middle. Colgate would bounce back, attacking the Red and White’s back row with four straight until Coyle and the Hilltoppers gained four of their own. The two sides rallied back-and-forth until the board was 15-11, Tops. Freshman Gabby Weihe would shoot out two back-to-back kills from the middle to energize WKU into five straight and a nine-point lead in the set. Colgate would call back, inching closer to the Hilltoppers going back and forth and a 3-0 run. The Hilltoppers would ultimately come up to 25 first with a Paige Briggs kill.

Set 2

Opening set two just as she finished the first, Briggs and the Tops got things going with a kill from the fifth-year, followed by a Gabby Weihe solo block and Colgate attacking error. An even match at the start, Colgate and WKU would fight back and forth until WKU hit nine points on the board and led in to a 4-0 run with kills from Briggs and Grevengoed. The Hilltoppers would take their largest lead of the set at 17-9 from a kill off the hand of outside Kaylee Cox. After, the Raiders from the Patriot League would take on four straight to the Hilltopper defense. A Schaefer ace to hit 20 points kept momentum for WKU, as Colgate would trickle back behind the Tops to catch up, not before the Tops would take set two.

Set 3

A Colgate kill from Frances Torres would open up the third frame and a grittier match between the two. The Raiders would lead on a 4-1 run before Weihe from the middle would break it up. Both the Hilltoppers and Raiders battled, never straying away from three points from each other until the very end. Kills from Briggs, Weihe, and setter Callie Bauer with sideout points would end the scoring for WKU after taking a 22-18 lead. Colgate then carried out a 7-0 run on the home bench side to push the match into a fourth set.

Set 4

Colgate would take the lead after back-to-back two-point runs and wage a five-point lead before the Tops called for a timeout. Resetting after the break, WKU would explode and catch up in a 3-0 run, all led by kills from Kenadee Coyle, and stay just close behind until a push through kill off the hand of Paige Briggs that would tie the set 17-17. The Red and White would gain another small lead from Coyle at 19-18, before the table turned and Colgate had the set at 22-21 in the Raiders’ favor. Taking the match, a Grevengoed kill, Cox ace, and sideout point would be the final 3-0 run for the Tops to take the first match of the Penn State Invitational.