CLEVELAND – The Wright State volleyball team opened Horizon League play with a three-set sweep over Cleveland State on Friday night as
Lainey Stephenson passed out 40 assists in the win to move into third-place all-time in program history.
Wright State (9-3, 1-0 HL) makes the short jump over to Michigan to take on Oakland Saturday afternoon in a 4 p.m. match expected to be streamed on ESPN+.
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Stephenson now has 4,356 assists and counting for her career following Friday's win as she heads into Saturday 301 assists shy of second place in the Raider record book, currently held by Lisa Dearden who passed out 4,657 assists from 1993-1996. Mandy Gels (1999-2002) is the Wright State program leader with 5,044 assists in her career.
Friday night, the Raiders got rolling early and never looked back, notching set wins of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-16 over Cleveland State (4-9, 1-1 HL) as
Taylor Bransfield finished with a match-high 16 kills and
Megan Alders added 11 of her own.
Callie Martin added the lone double-double of the night with 10 kills and 17 digs, while
Jenna Story and
Jenny Morey each had a pair of service aces.
Stephenson's 40 assists were tied for the second-most assists she's passed out in a three-set match in her career as she added nine digs, three block assists, a pair of kills and a service ace to her stat line.
SET ONE
Cleveland State tallied four of the first six points before the Raiders went on a 7-2 run to take control, later using a 3-0 spurt behind kills from Alders and Bransfield to extend the lead. The hosts scored three straight points to pull to within 21-18 before Wright State closed the set with four of the final six points thanks to kills from Bransfield, Martin and Ott.
SET TWO
Back-and-forth in the opening points, the Raiders took control of the set with a 6-0 run behind a pair of kills from Bransfield and three Cleveland State attacking errors. Cleveland State answered with a 7-0 run of its own to regain the advantage at 13-10 and later went up 18-14. Wright State responded with eight of the next nine points thanks to two more kills from Bransfield, a kill from Ott and a Morey service ace, closing out the set moments later with kills from
Jakyla Jackson and Martin.
SET THREE
After trading points early, Wright State rolled off an 8-2 run to jump out to a 12-6 advantage behind two kills each from Alders and Martin, along with points from Jackson and Ott and service aces from Stephenson and Story. A 4-1 run pushed the Raider lead to 17-9 before Cleveland State made what proved to be its final push, a 6-2 spurt to pull to within four at 19-15. Wright State closed the night with a six of the final seven points thanks to kills from Alders, Bransfield, Martin and Ott.
