PAINESVILLE, Ohio - After all three of their matches last weekend went five sets, Tiffin volleyball decided to take care of business much quicker on Friday night, sweeping aside the Lake Erie Storm with set scores of 25-21, 28-26, and 25-15.
With the win, the Dragons improve to 6-6 on the year and 1-0 in GMAC action, while Lake Erie falls to 1-9 and 0-1 in the conference.
The victory avenges a defeat at the hands of the Storm in last season's GMAC quarterfinal, when despite having a better conference record the Dragons were the 3-seed in the West Division and had to visit the 2-seed in the east Lake Erie and fell 3-1 to end their season.
The Dragons were very efficient in tonight's matchup, hitting over .244 in all three sets including a game-high .306 in set two. Tiffin held Lake Erie below .220 on the evening, including a 0 in set three when the Storm had nine kills and nine errors.
Lake Erie put up a great fight, though, in both of the first two sets. In set one, the Storm and Dragons battled back and forth before Lake Erie took a 15-13 advantage midway through. Tiffin responded with eight of the next 10 points, including a stretch of six in a row with Loryn Huffman serving, to take a 21-16 advantage.
The Dragons cruised to win the set from there, with a Grace Schreiber kill putting on the finishing touches to give TU a 1-0 advantage.
Tiffin looked to be heading to another victory in set two with a 24-21 lead late, but the Storm rallied to take a 25-24 lead with four straight points. However, Tiffin would not led the match be tied at one-all, as they rallied for four of the next five to win 28-26. Alicia Kessler had a pair of kills in the run, including the final score.
The third and final set was a bit easier for the Dragons, as after the score was tied at eight, Tiffin went on a 10-1 run to go up 18-9 and essentially put the set and the match away. Moments later, another kill from Schreiber ended the match as TU took the final frame 25-15.
Jenna Huffman led TU with 13 kills and 12 digs, while Screiber added eight kills and Kessler nine. Sam Fallis had 17 digs from the back line and Morgan White added 16, while Loryn Huffman recorded 34 assists.
Tiffin is back in action tomorrow night as they stay on the road to face Ursuline on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.