Towson Takes Down Elon Volleyball 3-0

TOWSON, Md. – Elon University volleyball battled back and forth with Towson on Friday night, Oct. 20, inside SECU Arena, but dropped a 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 26-24) match to the Tigers to open its four-match road trip.

FINAL STATS

“I thought our serving and passing was really good throughout,” said Elon head coach Mary Tendler. “Unfortunately it just didn’t always translate into points. Give credit to Towson for having a really good defensive effort throughout the match. It was great to see Alexa Pavlick play really well tonight. She’s been working hard in practice and it paid off for us. We’ll now shift our focus to Sunday for a big conference match at Delaware.”

The loss puts Elon’s overall record at 14-10 and the team’s conference record at 3-6. Towson earned its 20th win of the year and now stands at 20-3 overall and 6-3 in CAA play.

THE RUNDOWN
Elon posted four blocks in the opening set, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Tigers late run that give them the 25-22 set. The two sides opened the night trading points but after Towson took a 9-7 lead, Elon went on a 7-3 run to lead 13-11. Shortly after the Phoenix pushed the advantage to 14-12, Towson went on a 5-1 run and later added a 6-1 stretch to go up 24-18. Elon pulled momentum back with a 4-0 run of its own with two Sydney Busa kills and two Towson attack errors to cut the deficit back to two, but the Tigers closed the set with a Jocelyn Kuilan kill following a Tiger timeout.

The Phoenix opened the second set with a pair of aces from Kodi Garcia to lead 2-0, but Towson answered with a 4-0 run to go up two. After Elon took four of the next five points to lead 6-5, the two teams went back and forth with neither side going up more than two on the other until Towson used a 6-0 run to break a 15-15 tie to lead 21-15. It went on to finish the set on a 10-3 run en route to a 25-18 win.

Though Towson won three of the opening five points in the third set, Elon battled back with a 5-0 run that it pushed to 6-1 to lead 8-4. Towson won the ensuing four points to erase the advantage, but Elon used another 5-0 run to turn a 12-11 deficit into a 16-12 lead, forcing a Tiger timeout. Out of the break, Towson took three of the first four points to cut the lead back to two at 17-15, but Elon responded with three of the next four to lead 20-16. From there, though, Towson went on a 10-4 run to take a tight 26-24 third set to finish the sweep.

HIGHLIGHTS
Pavlick had a career night with new career bests in kills with seven and blocks with six. Busa missed a double-double by one dig, finishing with 15 kills and nine digs with two blocks. Kam Terry closed her night with eight kills and nine digs. Kodi Garcia added 28 assists to go with eight digs.

Julymar Otero posted her fourth triple-double of the season with 10 kills, 15 assists and 13 digs. She finished with a .474 (10-1-19) hitting percentage. Carola Biver led Towson with 11 kills, five digs, three blocks and three assists. Kuilan posted 10 kills and six digs in the match while Marrisa Wonders finished with 17 assists.

NOTES
-Busa’s 15 kills now has her at 1,226 for her career in maroon and gold. She now stands 53 kills behind Caroline Lemke’s 1,279 kills from 2008-11.
-Maddie Jaudon finished with 10 digs on the night, increasing her career total to 1,280. She is now 88 behind M.K. Spear’s 1,368.
-Busa’s nine digs pushed her total to 1,011 to date. She is now 85 behind tying Chanelle Smith’s 1,096 for 10th-most in program history.
-Pavlick’s previous career high for kills was six in the Phoenix Classic in September against North Carolina Central. Her previous career high in blocks was four on two occasions with the most recent coming against NCCU last month.

UP NEXT
Elon will look to complete the season sweep of Delaware on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 22, with a 1 p.m. match against the Blue Hens. Elon’s last visit to the Bob Carpenter Center saw it earn a five-set win on Oct. 1, 2016, when Sydel Curry posted 62 assists in the victory.