MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee volleyball (27-3), the No. 2 seed, advanced to the semi-finals of the Sun Belt Championships with a 3-0 (30-22, 30-25, 30-18) shutout of No. 7 seed Arkansas State (11-19) Thursday in Alumni Memorial Gym. Freshman middle blocker Ashley Asberry, who was seeing extended playing time due to an injured Lindsay Sisco, made her presence known. The Murfreesboro native, and former Oakland High School standout, had a career-high 10 block assists against Arkansas State and also recorded six kills.
"We sometimes don't get 10 blocks in a match and Ashley Asberry was a roof over the Arkansas State hitters," said Head Coach Matt Peck. "She was very composed and introduced herself to the Sun Belt Conference tonight."
Arkansas State averaged 14.5 blocks for the match and had a total of 29 blocked shots. Most of the Lady Indians blocks game in the first two games, and Peck informed his team that they were going to have to do a better job at handling the ball.
"I told the team we were up 2-0 but we needed to do a better job passing so that Megan [Sumrell] has choices and their block can't cheat," Peck said. "And sure enough, in they only had one block in the last game. What I like about our team is if our opponent pushes we push right back."
For the game, Middle Tennessee had a .229 attack percentage and held Arkansas State to .027. The Blue Raiders also had eight service aces in the match with junior Andressa Lyra recording four of them.
Lyra had a match-high 14 kills and also notched six digs. Freshman Ashley Adams added 10 kills.
Middle Tennessee will face No. 3 seed Denver at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
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