MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - It was a record-breaking night on Friday when the Middle Tennessee volleyball team earned its 20th win of the season with a 3-1 (34-32, 30-27, 22-30, 30-17) victory over North Texas (8-14, 2-3 SBC) in Alumni Memorial Gym. The 20-2 start by the Blue Raiders is only the second time in school history Middle Tennessee has had 20 plus wins in a season. The only other squad to achieve this feat was the 1995 team, which won 32 matches. Middle Tennessee also improves to 5-1 in the Sun Belt.
Junior Megan Sumrell also reached a milestone for the Blue Raiders. The setter from Chattanooga moved into second place in the Middle Tennessee record books for assists with 2,959. She needs just 337 more assists to take over the top spot.
For all the hoopla about records, Middle Tennessee almost didn't achieve that goal, thanks to a sluggish game three. The Blue Raiders came out of the gate on fire, however faltered slightly in game one, but rallied back to win 32-34. A pesky North Texas team made game two interesting as well, winning the first three points to set a tone. The Blue Raiders extinguished their threat to take game three, but it was a prelude of things to come.
North Texas entered game three with a vengeance, going on a 10-2 run to start the game. The Blue Raiders found themselves in a hole early, and never quite dug themselves out. Middle Tennessee had seven errors in the game and had their lowest attack percentage of the match to allow the Mean Green to take game three.
"I really don't like the way we played tonight," said Head Coach Matt Peck. "We seemed to be distracted the whole match, and it was really evident in game three."
The Blue Raiders did get back on track in game four. Middle Tennessee hit a scorching .314 and held North Texas to a paltry .033 attack percentage. Junior Andressa Lyra put an exclamation point on the match when she scored match point with a monster kill in the middle of the court.
Lyra notched her 22nd consecutive double figure kill mark against North Texas with 18 and also recorded her 17th double double with 13 digs.
Freshman Ashley Adams also had 18 kills in the match and sophomore Victoria Monasterolo had 12 kills. Sophomore Alicia Lemau'u had 25 digs.
Middle Tennessee hosts Denver at 12 p.m. on Sunday in Alumni Memorial Gym.
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