GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) --- The Green Bay Phoenix volleyball team (11-8, 6-1 HL) won its sixth-straight match in dramatic comeback fashion on Friday night, beating Cleveland State (12-7, 6-1 HL) 3-2 in five sets despite falling behind 2-0 early on at the Kress Center. With the comeback victory, the Phoenix moves into a first-place tie with the Vikings, and snaps a three-game losing streak to the defending champions in the process.
Green Bay 3, Cleveland State 2
The first two sets went to the visitors, with CSU winning 25-21 in the first and 27-25 in the second. From that point forward, it was all Green Bay, forcing a fifth set after winning 25-17 in the third and 25-22 in the fourth, the Phoenix had all the momentum heading to the decisive fifth set. And carried over again.
GB opened up a quick 4-1 lead in the fifth set, sparked by kills from
Jessica Wolf,
Alexandra Zakutney and
Maddie Yoss. The Phoenix led again at 6-2, and later at 11-10 as the drama heated up. Four of the final six points then went to GB, including the final kill by
Taylor Wolf that was tipped by the CSU defense into the back of the court, sending the home team into a celebration.
Offensively, GB was led by T. Wolf's 20 kills, marking her fifth match this year with 20 or more kills. The sophomore also racked up a career-high 24 digs and five assists, leading the team once again with 22.0 points in the match. Freshman
Alexandra Zakutney racked up a career-high 16 kills on a match-high 54 swings at the net, while J. Wolf registered 13 kills of her own. Both
Ashley Sledge and
Anna Eaton recorded 10 kills, with Eaton connecting for a kill on 10 of her 16 attempts.
On the defensive side of the net,
Vanessa Buman finished with a team-high 27 digs, with
Austyn Everingham getting 13 digs of her own and
Maddie Yoss adding another 12. Controlling the Phoenix attack, Yoss finished with a season-high 60 assists. The junior also finished with eight kills in the match.
After hitting just .053 in the first set, the Phoenix steadily improved before finishing with a .184. As a team, GB totaled a season-high 91 digs and recorded eight blocks.
Next Game
The Phoenix will return to the Kress Center tomorrow, hosting Youngstown State (7-13, 1-6 HL), which fell at Milwaukee 3-0 on Friday night.
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