LEXINGTON - Junior middle hitter
Kayden Holcomb and outside hitters
Isabella Myers and
Cate Scheper reached double-digit kills in Transy's 1-3 set loss to No. 11 Berry College.
In a highly anticipated rematch from last season's Sweet Sixteen, both teams traded set wins before the Vikings took a third set thriller 25-23 and controlled the pace in the fourth set to beat the Pioneers in the 2023 season opener.
Berry's Jazzy Innis led the floor with seventeen kills to help push her team past a tough Transy squad who didn't back down against an attack heavy Viking team. The Viking's hit .152 higher than the Pioneers and their eleven blocks played a key part in the win.
Despite the loss, Transy stood toe to toe with the Vikings and showed no quit. After struggling to get the upper hand in the first set, the Pioneers went on an 8-2 run to start set two that pushed them away from the Vikings for most of the set. Transy led the entire second set and pushed the momentum back to their side to earn the 25-23 set two victory.
Berry seemingly had a similar start to the third set, starting on an 8-2 run. After gathering themselves, Transy took a 7-1 run to tie the the game at 9-9 with both teams slugging it out. Transy found themselves down 20-17, but
Kayden Holcomb stopped the Berry run with a kill and
Maggie Harrison scored the next two points with an attack error and a service ace to bring the crowd to one of its loudest cheers on the night. Berry would get the final two points in the set to take a 2-1 lead.
Transy took a 4-3 lead in the fourth set but the Viking scored twelve of the next fourteen points, jumping to a commanding 15-6 lead. The run was good enough for an eventual fourth set 25-16 win to move to 1-0 on the season.
The Pioneers move to 0-1 on the season and have a quick turnaround with two games on Saturday. They'll face No. 7 Calvin in what will be one of the biggest matches of the weekend in DIII, before facing Illinois Wesleyan at 5:30 PM to close out the first weekend of action.
Grace Ward finished the match with 39 assists. Holcomb's .448 attack percentage led all Transy players on the night.
