Air Force Picks up Two Wins at Omni Invitational

Sept. 18, 2015

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – The Air Force volleyball team improved to 7-7 on the year with victories over Weber State and George Mason today (Sept. 18), during the second day of action at the Omni Invitational at the Academy's Cadet East Gym. The Falcons held on for a 3-2 victory over the Wildcats and swept the Patriots to extend their win streak to five matches.

Air Force opened the day with 25-22, 26-24 victories over Weber State, but the Wildcats came back to take the next two sets 25-13, 25-21 and even the match at two. The Falcons hit a match-high clip of .296 in the deciding frame to hold off the visitors by a narrow 21-19 margin. It was the second time in as many games that the Falcons have seen a 2-0 lead disappear, only to claim the match in the fifth set.

Senior Akokwe Clement and sophomore Shelley Spires paced all players with 16 kills each, while freshman Elizabeth Pennington nearly reached a double-digit kill total with nine. Fellow freshman Shanleigh Conlan tallied team-leading marks in assists (23) and service aces (three), while classmate Sarah Hellman added 21 helpers to the team's offensive stat line.

The Falcons recorded two solo blocks in the match, as well as 24 assisted stops. Senior Taylor Parker paced the team with eight blocks (all assisted), while Pennington added seven (all assisted). Senior Raquel Rosas recorded both of the squad's solo stops and assisted on four others, while Clement also posted a multi-block match with four (all assisted). Fellow senior Rebecca Bates rounded out the Falcons' stat leaders, as she accounted for 11 digs.

"I think we struggled in serve/receive for a little while and then really pulled it together in that fifth set," assistant coach Marc Swindle said after the day's first match. "We showed how resilient we are. We just keep getting better, every game. That was good for us to experience that ... we can learn from that and grow from that."

Hitting .429 as a team in the nightcap (42k-9e-77a), the Falcons swept George Mason 25-22, 25-14, 25-21. Clement, who posted a .519 average with 15 kills on 27 attempts and one error, was one of five Falcons to hit over .350 in the contest. Parker and Rosas, who both collected four blocks in the match, hit at respective clips of .600 (4k-1e-5a) and .571 (5k-1e-7a), while Spires tallied 10 kills on 19 swings with just three errors for a .368 average.

As a team, the Falcons hit over .230 in each set, highlighted by a .625 average of 16 kills on 24 attempts with just one error in the second set. Hellman (23) and Conlan (14) combined for 37 of the team's 39 assists, while Bates registered three aces and Bradley Powers picked up 11 digs.

"Akokwe (had) 27 swings and just one error with 15 kills," head coach Matt McShane said after the second contest. "Those are just great unbelievably great numbers. She played really well tonight and was deceptively good with her passing. I think tonight was just a really good team effort by us."

Air Force closes out the Omni Invitational on Sunday, Sept. 20, when it travels to Boulder to take on co-host Colorado at 7:00 p.m. The match will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Network.

Footer

The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the u.s air force of non-u.s. government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although the u.s. air force may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for department of defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all of the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.