Hokie Club
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Freshman Logan Mosley sure has made quite an entrance, scooping up 120 digs her first five matches at the college level.
On Saturday versus Davidson (1-3) at the Liberty Invitational, the libero made an impressive off-balanced, one-arm dig the very first Wildcat attack to set the tone for the rest of contest, racking up a school-record 39 digs in the Hokies' 3-1 win inside the Vines Center.
Mosley broke the previous school record of 37 set by Jill Gergen back in 2009.
Tech (3-2) offensively was led by junior Marisa Cerchio, who posted a team-high 14 kills while getting four blocks, too. Setter Talyn Jackson had 37 assists, six digs, a career-high six kills and a block.
THE MATCH
The Hokies began the match in control, getting out to a three-point lead at 10-7. They would maintain that advantage all the way up to 19-16 after a kill from Cerchio, but the Wildcats got hot and went on a 9-2 run to win it 25-21.
Knotted at 9-9 in the early going of the second stanza, Davidson scored three straight points, but the Hokies clawed back and regained their lead at 17-16. Tech would stay strong and not let the Wildcats claim the lead again, with Mosley having the final say by getting an ace for the final point to win it 25-23.
Davidson started out with a three-point lead at 15-12, forcing Tech to call a timeout. Out of the break in action, Tech, once again, chipped away at the deficit and made it a tied frame at 20-all. The Hokies would score five of the next six points behind Jackson taking over and dumping two kills at the net to lead Tech to a 25-21 third-set win.
The final frame was Tech the whole way, jumping out to a five-point lead at 14-9. From there, the Hokies would continue to build to their lead, getting two kills by Cerchio and another from Jackson in the middle to extend their differential to nine at 25-16 to claim it.
QUOTING HEAD COACH JILL WILSON
On libero Logan Mosley breaking the school record:
"I was really proud of her effort today," Tech coach Jill Wilson said. "Davidson came out feisty and we got into some longer rallies than we should have, but she held her ground and was pretty amazing over there. There essentially weren't any balls that hit the floor on her half of the court, so I was really proud of that type of effort to do that."
QUOTING LIBERO LOGAN MOSLEY
On how she got in the zone early on:
"I just stayed focused and played the game," Mosley said. "I didn't really keep track of the digs and just played for my team and it went on from there."
On the team losing the first set, but then ripping off three straight wins:
"I could tell that we were frustrated with losing the first one, but we pulled ourselves together and said to each other that we would get the next three," Mosley said. "And that's what we did."
On what it feels like to be the single-match digs record holder at Tech:
"It's awesome," Mosley said. "I wasn't expecting it. But I'll just move forward from here and will keep trying to break more as we try to get more wins as a team."
NOTES
- Mosley, who was coming into the weekend with the second-best digs per set mark (5.45) in the ACC, has now had three matches this fall of owning at least 20 digs. She joined elite company with her 30-plus dig match, becoming just the sixth player in school history to have a 30-dig match.
- Junior Kylie Thomas also shined on the defensive end, collecting 13 digs for the second match in a row, tying a career high. It also marked her best two-match stretch of her career, getting 26 digs thus far in Lynchburg.
- Freshman Anabel Zier had the second-most kills on the team, posting eight kills while getting a team-high five blocks, including two solo.
- Junior Kaity Smith was close to a double-double, totaling seven kills and seven digs, as well as two assists. The Kentucky native had her second consecutive match of having seven kills.
UP NEXT
Tech will have one more bout in the Liberty Invitational, playing the host school of the tourney, Liberty (1-2), at 7 p.m. ET, which will be available to watch on ESPN+.Gallery: (9/7/2019) 2019 VOLLEYBALL vs. DAVIDSON