By DAVID SCHERER | Staff Writer

This weekend the Lady Govs volleyball team overcame a slow start to defeat the Murray State Lady 3-2 (18-25, 25-17, 25-20, 16-25, 15-13). The victory propelled the Lady Govs to second place in the OVC and put them in place to receive a bye in the first round of OVC Tourney.

In the first set of the match the Racers opened with a wire-to-wire win. The Lady Govs provided a valiant defense in the middle of the set tieing it at 15-15, but the Racers attack proved to be too much and APSU conceded 5 straight points to end the set.

The Lady Govs were able to win both the second and third sets, but waited until late in them both to take control. Trailing 8-5 in the second set they used a 5 point run to take a 10-8 lead. They then used multiple small runs to take a 20-15 lead, and finished the Racers with a pair of aces by senior Jessica Mollman and sophomore Nikki Doyle.

In the third set neither side was able to assume control, with the two teams trading the lead eight times and tieing 11 more, but a 5-1 run was exactly what the Lady Govs needed to assume a 23-19 lead. Senior Sarah Alisaleh finished the Racers for APSU with a service ace to close the set.

The fourth set saw the Racers battle back in the face of defeat. They were able to utilize a 9-3 run to convert a 9-9 tie into an 18-12 lead. The finished the set with a 7-4 run and tied the match 2-2.

The decisive set proved to be just as exciting as the middle sets with the teams trading the lead 5 times and tieing it 9 more. Murray was down 13-11, with defeat staring them down, and battled back to tie the set 13-13 utilizing a service error as well as a kill. In the end though Doyle came through again as she so often has this year scoring a kill and then winning the match with a service ace.

Doyle led the team once again with 13 kills and 3 service aces. Junior Ilyanna Hernandez also added 12 kills and the Lady Govs finished with 10 service aces.

The Lady Govs stay at home to face OVC foe, Jacksonville State, Friday, Oct. 29 and Tennessee Tech Saturday, Oct. 30. TAS

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