WICHITA, Kan. – First year head coach Kortney Rehorn notched her first career wins behind a combined 37 kills from Gabbie Taylor that powered a pair of 3-1 wins over Oklahoma Panhandle State University and Evergreen State College at today's (Aug. 21) season opening Friends Invitational inside the Garvey Center.
After cruising to a 25-17 win in the opening set over OPSU, the Falcons fell 25-15 in the second to square the match at 1-1.
The next two sets went right down to the wire, with consecutive kills from Erin Cheatum and Natalie Castillo finishing off a 27-25 win in the third set to put the Falcons on top.
In the fourth set, OPSU battled back from an 18-14 deficit to force four gridlocks before a kill from Sofia Mekelburg and a service ace by Bailey Wilson closed the set and match out 26-24.
Taylor delivered what would be a temporary career-high 18 kills in the Falcons' first win of the day along with a team-high 17 digs. Cheatum and Addison Fulton each had 10 kills and Mekelburg recorded a career best 27 assists. Amber Ellis added 11 assists, while Haley Ziser (17) and Erin Palyash each produced double-digit digs for Friends.
Jordyn Carpenter led OPSU with 17 kills and Maria Augustyniak had 21 assists. Kylie Cumbie tallied a team-high 18 digs.
In the win over Evergreen, the Falcons stumbled in the first set 25-22 but caught fire and blitzed through the second set 25-11. Friends then pulled out the third 25-21 to take the lead and got a game-winning kill from Castillo to put away the match 25-23 in the fourth.
Taylor bettered her career-high in the previous match by one with 19 kills. Castillo finished with 10 kills, with Mekelburg (24 assists) and Ellis (20 assists) combining to facilitate the offensive attack. Defensively, a host of players contributed behind Ziser (18 digs), Taylor (15 digs), Wilson (14 digs) and Mekelburg (10 digs).
Sophia Scroggins and Zofia Formella each had nine kills to lead Evergreen, with Jayden Vaimaona posting a team-high 15 assists and Jaci Yamada leading the team with 17 digs.
"It was great seeing this team compete and fight back when we were down," said Rehorn. "They have been working so hard this preseason and it was great to see them compete against our opponents. I am looking forward to seeing what this season has in store."
The Falcons will look to keep things rolling on the final day of the invitational tomorrow (Aug. 22) with matches at noon vs. Peru State College and 4 pm against MidAmerica Nazarene University.
