Bragg Surpasses 3,000-Career Assists though Trojans Fall

BELLEVUE, Neb. – The No. 18 Taylor (6-2) volleyball team took the court on Friday for day one of the Labor Day Classic, a day on which the Trojans experienced their first taste of defeat in the 2022 campaign though senior setter, Kacy Bragg, became just the 10th Trojan in program-history to surpass 3,000-career assists.

After having posted a single-match career-best 61 assists last weekend in Taylor's five-set win over Thomas More, Bragg entered Friday's competition just 17 assists shy of the 3,000-career mark. Taylor's opening opponent, No. 15 Central Methodist (4-1), proved burdensome for the Trojans, but nonetheless Bragg hit her career-milestone in the second set.

Just the 10th player in TU volleyball program-history to score 3,000-career assists, Bragg is the first since Haley Harrell, who did so throughout a career that ended in 2018. Furthermore, since the rally-scoring era began in 2001, only five previous Taylor athletes had surpassed the 3,000-career assist mark. Bragg, who has averaged 8.75 assists-per-set throughout her marvelous career, has now become the sixth.

Though Friday marked a significant career-milestone for Bragg, it also marked Taylor's first two losses of the 2022 campaign, the first of which came against Central Methodist.

Taylor dropped each of the match's three sets, frustratingly unable to nurture momentum throughout. While the Trojans were fueled to a 6-0 start to the season by a strong hitting percentage and staunch blocking ability on defense, the season-script was flipped on Friday against Central Methodist.

The Trojan offense accumulated 26 errors throughout the three-set match, limiting its team hitting percentage to a troublesome mark of just .058 while failing to record a single block on the defensive end. In contrast, Taylor entered play on Friday with a team season-average hitting percentage of .237, alongside an even more impressive block-per-set mark of 2.67, each of which, however, took a serious hit after Friday's three-set loss to No. 15 Central Methodist.

With one tough matchup in the books, Taylor then took the court for a second against RV Ottawa (4-4), to whom the Trojans fell in five sets.

After dropping the first set 25-13, Taylor fought back and won the following two, energized along the way by senior right-side hitter, Ryan Czerniak, who finished the match with 22 kills. Czerniak now leads the Crossroads League in both kills and hitting percentage, totaling 125 kills this season while maintaining a percentage of .442.

On the defensive end, a trio of Trojans worked to fend off the Ottawa attack by recording 15-or-more digs, including freshman, McKaylah Flagle, alongside seniors, Kacy Bragg and Nikki Parrett.

In the end, though, Taylor could not overcome its offensive woes, as seven attack errors in the decisive fifth set paved the way for Ottawa to walk away with the win.

No. 18 Taylor (6-2) is back in action on Saturday, September 3, when the Trojans take the court for day two of the Labor Day Classic with matchups against McPherson (5-3) and RV Grand View (1-6).