Four players had at least six kills as Maryland Eastern Shore defeated La Salle, 3-0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-16) on Day Two of the Delaware State Invitational at Memorial Hall Saturday.
Senior outside hitter Whitney Johnson led the way for Hawks with a game-high nine kills, followed by seniors Caylin Woodward and Thonya Joseph who had seven apiece. Sophomore Zoe Bowens tallied six kills of her own to help UMES win for the sixth time in seven matches and improve to 7-3 on the season.
Freshman Bella Jade Romero pitched in with 25 assists and nine digs for the Hawks. Bowens (eight digs) and Woodward (seven) also had strong matches on the defensive end.
Freshman Gina Abbott and redshirt junior Samantha Chukwura each had a pair of service aces in the victory.
The Hawks hit a season-high .413 (38-7-75) against the Explorers (2-9) and held them to just .045 from the floor.
UMES led, 13-8, in the first game heading into a La Salle timeout and scored the next six of seven points to widen its advantage to 19-9. Chukwura closed the run with a block of Kelly Scanlon's attack.
The Hawks closed the set on kills from freshman Karin Vikterlof, Joseph and Johnson to go up, 1-0.
UMES led the entire way in the second game; opening it with the first five points and three consecutive Johnson kills in that stretch. The Hawks went errorless in the game with 14 kills and a .478 percentage.
A Woodward kill secured a 12-point win, the largest lead of the game.
With the third game tied at three, UMES took the lead for good, running off 12-of-16 points to make it 15-7. Chukwura ended that run with a kill off of a set from Romero.
Abbott and fellow freshman setter Chelsea Myers combined on match point. Myers assisted on a kill by Abbott to finish off La Salle.
The Explorers got eight kills from Rachel Stemper and 10 assists each from Carly Conlon and Kourtney Clark. Samantha Tulskie and Stemper tied for the team lead with nine digs.