Yellow Jackets improve to 6-3 with two more wins on Friday

RIO GRANDE, Ohio – The Defiance Yellow Jackets picked up two decisive victories on Friday to open up the first day of the Emileigh Jo Cooper Memorial Tournament hosted by Rio Grande.

The Jackets (6-3) earned their third straight-set win of the year over Kentucky Christian before taking down West Virginia Tech in four sets. Now with six wins on the season, Defiance has already accumulated the most wins in a season since winning 17 in 2019.

Game 1 vs. Kentucky Christian, W 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-21)
The Yellow Jackets cruised to a three-set win over Kentucky Christian to start the tournament. The first set saw Defiance overcome a 9-5 deficit to claim 10 of the next 12 volleys and never looked back to claim the opening set. DC dominated the second set after a competitive start with a rally of 14 of the last 18 points going to the Yellow Jackets. In the third, Kentucky Christian never let Defiance take more than a four-point lead but were unable to force a fourth set.

Shelby Clements was the lone Yellow Jacket with double-figure kills with 10 and also led the team with 13 digs. Amina Chamoun and Kylie Anderson divided setting duties with 14 and 13 assists respectively. The Yellow Jackets gained 18 points just in the service game with eight aces and 10 service errors by KCU. Defiance hit .138 as a team compared to .046 by Kentucky Christian due to 22 errors and 27 kills.

Game 2 vs. WVU Tech, W 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-12, 26-24)
The second match against West Virginia Tech featured three tight sets along with the most lopsided set win of the year for the Yellow Jackets. DC rallied to four straight points near the end of the first set to take a 23-20 lead before kills by Clements and Jamia Murray gave Defiance a crucial first-set win. WVU Tech had a strong start to the second set, leading 8-3 before DC rallied to lead 15-11. The Golden Bears closed strong to overcome a 22-20 Defiance advantage to take the set 25-22. 

In the third set, Defiance hit the lights out and committed just two attack errors and hit .286 to cruise to a 25-12 win. The fourth and decisive set required extra serves as Defiance claimed a 26-24 victory. The final set of the day featured 17 ties before the Yellow Jackets prevailed.

Murray topped the Defiance stat sheet with 14 kills while Jaelyn Tomoletz added 11 and Gabby Rodriguez clobbered 10. Clements also had nine more to close the day with 19 kills. Anderson and Chamoun each eclipsed 20 assists with 21 and 24 respectively.

UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets wraps up invitational play on Saturday with two more matches, starting against host Rio Grande at 9:30 a.m.

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