November 1, 2009
By: Erin Neal, sports information assistant
DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Bluffton University women's volleyball team continued their winning ways as they had yet another successful weekend on the road. Saturday, the Beavers defeated conference foe Rose-Hulman in three straight sets (25-21, 29-27, 27-25). In their second match-up of the day, they took down Illinois College in four sets, 25-15, 25-23, 16-25, 25-21. A rare Sunday afternoon contest saw Bluffton overpower Franklin College in a three-set flurry that took less than one hour to complete (25-10, 25-11, 25-13). With the trio of victories, the Beavers moved to 24-5 on the season and 7-0 in conference play to sit in sole possession of the HCAC with only one conference match remaining. Following the perfect weekend, the Beavers completed an undefeated month of October as Bluffton has won 14 consecutive matches.
Against the Fightin' Engineers of Rose-Hulman, Bluffton hit .239 on the afternoon. The offense was led by a trio of hitters: JENNA ESHLEMAN (Landisville, Penn./Hempfield), NICOLE WOOD(Tiffin/Hopewell-Loudon), and ALLISON STREICHER(Continental/Continental) had 13, 12, and 10 kills, respectively. Calling the shots for the offense was junior setter SHAUNA ROWLAND (Bucyrus/Wynford) who notched 38 assists. Rowland also led the team in digs with 26 and she was followed by senior libero BRITTANY ROTH (Findlay) with 23, Streicher with 20 and KAYLA PICKERING (Jamestown/Greenview) with 11. Roth, who recently moved into first place on Bluffton's all-time digs list, went over the 2,000 mark for her career. Sophomore middles COURTNEY ZIMMERMAN (Leesburg/Fairfield) and HEATHER RODMAN (Mansfield/Mansfield Christian) also took control of the net as they had four and three block assists, respectively.
-BEAVERS-