SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. -- Junior middle blocker Ashley Turnage set career highs with 13 kills and eight blocks to lead Western Michigan volleyball past Northeastern, 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 27-25), in the Seton Hall Invitational at Walsh Gymnasium.
Turnage's eight block assists is a career high, while her eight total blocks ties a career high, which led to a career-high 18 points. Turnage hit .385 for the Broncos, while her partner, sophomore middle blocker Jessica Brown, hit .400 with 12 kills and two blocks.
"Turnage and Jess did a good job in the middle and Sam did a good job of forcing the middle," head coach Colleen Munson said. "Turnage was able to run some things in front of the setter, which she is very good at, and their middles couldn't respond. Turnage also did a really good job of closing her block and making things difficult for them."
The Broncos (7-4) benefitted against the Huskies (8-5) with the eighth career double-double for junior setter Sam Viox with 33 assists, season-high-tying 12 digs, two aces and two blocks.
Senior outside hitter Allyson Doyle added a team-high 15 digs, five blocks, four kills and three assists. Doyle moved into seventh in school history with 287 block assists to pass Zakiya Pope and became the 12th player in school history to compile 300 total blocks (301). She also moved into 10th in school history in attack attempts with 2,893 to pass Joanne Bingham.
Freshman outside hitter Gillian Asque added eight kills and eight digs, while freshman outside hitter Ali Gossen had a career-high three total blocks. Freshman Lena Oliver added 12 digs for the Broncos.
The Broncos hit .181 with 39 kills, while Northeastern hit .130 with 40 kills. The Broncos had a season-high 12 total blocks and served four aces. The Huskies had two aces, but eight missed serves.
Northeastern was led by Jessica LaScola with 27 digs and Janelle Tucker with 14 kills, but she was held to .190 hitting, and 12 digs.
"They were really, really scrappy and a very tenacious defensive team," Munson said. "We started well, but then began playing their system, which slowed us down on our side of the net. We just weren't as effective as we needed to be."
A block by Turnage and Doyle, kill by Doyle and Gossen ace put the Broncos up by seven, 13-6, in the first set. A kill by Brown concluded the 8-2 run to put WMU up nine, 17-8. The Huskies began to fight back and closed within two, 24-22, before Brown ended the set with a kill, 25-22.
WMU hit .367 with 14 kills, six by Brown, and blocked four swings by the Huskies. NU hit .242 with 12 kills.
A kill by Turnage tied the score, 7-7, but Northeastern rallied with a 9-4 run to go up by five, 16-11. The Broncos responded with a 6-0 run to take their first lead, 17-16. Turnage accounted for half the points in the run with kills. The Huskies tied the score on the next point, but WMU went on an 8-3 run to take the set, 25-20, after a bad set by NU.
Each team had 13 kills, but WMU hit .211 to .135 hitting for Northeastern. Turnage had seven kills and three blocks in the set for WMU.
The Broncos surrendered the first three points of the set and allowed Northeastern to build a six-point lead, 17-11, before beginning to rally. A service error by the Huskies started an 11-2 run to put the Broncos in front, 22-19. Turnage accounted for all three points to break a tie, 19-19, with two kills and a block assist with Gossen. Another Turnage kill put WMU up 23-20, but Northeastern went on a 5-1 run to re-take the lead, 25-24. The Huskies missed the next serve to tie the set, followed by an Asque kill and NU attack error to end the match, 27-25.
The Huskies had 15 kills and 11 errors to hit .066, including four more WMU blocks. The Broncos hit .068 with 12 kills, led by Turnage with four.
"Overall, the girls seemed to be in control against a different style of offense that what we normally see." Munson said. "The kids were tested and found a way to battle back. We were down in the last two sets, but relied on each other and that's a testament to what we worked on in practice this week to succeed."
Western Michigan continues the tournament at 10 a.m. tomorrow against Seton Hall and 12:30 p.m. against UMBC.
