The Wright State volleyball team made more history on Wednesday night, and did so in dominating fashion, as the Raiders swept Samford in three sets in the opening round of the 2020 NCAA Championship in Omaha, Nebraska to capture the first NCAA win in program history.
The Raiders now advance to take on Texas on Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN3. This will be the first meeting all-time between Wright State and Texas on the volleyball court.
In addition to being the first NCAA win for the Raiders, the victory was also the first time a Horizon League team has won a match in the NCAA Championship.
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Wright State was in control all night, using
Celia Powers kill to give them a 2-1 lead in the opening set and never looking back. Powers had the first point of the match and following the brief 1-1 tie and another kill from Powers, the match was never again tied as the Raiders offensive attack was relentless.
The Raiders finished the night with a .304 team hitting percentage, committing only 10 errors over the three sets while holding Samford to a .149 team hitting mark, including a -0.033 percentage in the second set.
Wright State racked up 14 service aces as a team, with
Callie Martin (5),
Teddie Sauer (4) and
Lainey Stephenson (3) all with multiple tallies from the service line.
Megan Alders and
Nyssa Baker both had a match-high nine kills, while Powers finished with eight kills of her own. Sauer did a little bit of everything, adding six blocks and five kills to her four aces.
Stephenson passed out 27 of the Raiders' 34 assists, while
Jenna Story (18) and Stephenson (10) each tallied double-digit digs as Wright State recorded 48 total digs over the three sets.
SET 1
Tied at 1-all, the Raiders six of the next seven points to take control of the set behind kills from Powers, Sauer and Alders. Wright State doubled up Samford at 14-7 and went on a four-point run behind kills from Sauer and Powers, along with a service ace by Stephenson, to extend the advantage to 17-7. After reaching set point at 24-16 via a kill from Baker, Samford went on a four-point run of its own before a Bulldog service error gave the set to the Raiders at 25-20.
SET 2
Wright State came out firing, tallying the first nine points of the set behind a pair of kills from Sauer and a pair of service aces from Martin. Back-to-back kills from Baker pushed the lead to 13-2 before the Raiders later hit a 22-10 advantage on a service ace from Sauer. Wright State ended the set with three of the last four points, including a pair of kills from Alders to close the set at 25-12.
SET 3
The Raiders scored six of the first seven points of the set behind a pair of service aces from Stephenson and another from Martin before tallying a stretch of 10 of the next 12 points behind kills from Powers, Baker, Alders, Stephenson and
Sam Wolf to lead 16-4. A five-point run pushed the advantage to 22-10 behind kills from Wolf and Powers. The night ended with back-to-back Samford errors to give the Raiders a 25-15 set win and the sweep.
