Taylor Fades After Bright Start Against No. 15 MVNU

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – No. 22 Taylor (10-4, 1-1 CL) started brightly before fading in a four-set defeat on the road against No. 15 Mount Vernon Nazarene (8-4, 1-1 CL) on Saturday afternoon.  

Taylor set the tone early, racing out to a 4-0 lead behind kills from Alexa Mader and Reagan Salzbrenner. The Trojans continued to hold a sizeable lead until the Cougars went on a 4-1 run to cut the lead to one at 13-12.

The squads traded points until they were knotted at 22 and TU took its first timeout. Reagan Kleiman and Daya Vestal delivered with back-to-back kills to bring up set point and force a timeout from MVNU.

The Cougars scored a point after the timeout, but Kleiman gave TU the opening set victory with her fourth kill as Taylor fired 12 kills without an error in a clean set victory.

The TU offense faded after the bright first set, hitting negative the rest of the way as MVNU came back to take the next three sets in convincing fashion as TU scored no more than 16 in any of the final three sets.

Vestal led the Trojans with six kills and three blocks while McKaylah Flagle notched 16 disg with Mackenzie Gerig close behind at 12. Taylor struggled with the MVNU serve, allowing 14 aces, while only collecting one ace of its own.

TU will look to rebound in Crossroads League action on Wednesday, September 10 against RV Grace (8-6, 1-1 CL) at home with the match se to begin at 7:00 pm.