Butler volleyball was itching to get another crack at Garden City after an early season 3-1 loss on the road to the then winless Broncbusters back in September. They got their revenge as they cruised to a straight set 3-0 victory 25-16, 25-16, 25-23 Friday night.
After scoring three of the first five points in set one, Jaryn Benning knew it was going to her night. A big night it was for the freshman from Topeka, KS as she led the Grizzlies posting a double-double 17 kills and 17 digs while adding in two serving aces.
"Passing was good, sets were good and that just made hitting a lot easier," said freshman outside hitter Jaryn Benning.
Benning hit both a season high in hitting percentage (.469) and in kills with 17 with only two errors on the night.
"Jaryn did great again tonight," said head coach Lisa Lechtenberg. "She had 17 kills and hit .469 which is ridiculous. That is almost one out of two balls she was putting away tonight, she was fun to watch tonight."
Butler led the entire way in set one dominating both sides of the ball. Sydney Scanlon shared the ball well to her hitters and the offense kept the ball in play taking a quick 1-0 lead with a 25-16 set one victory. The Grizzlies only had one attack error in the set while hitting a game high .429 hitting percentage.
Set two saw Garden City come out with more fire keeping the game tight early in the set. A controversial call that went against the Broncbusters would eventually lead to a Patrick Hiltz yellow card from the up ref. That call tied the game at 8-8 and Butler stole the momentum from Garden City scoring eight of the next 13 points to take a 16-13 lead. Garden closed the game 17-16 but the Grizzlies went on a nine-point run to finish the set winning 25-16.
Garden City tried to extend the night hanging around all throughout set three. The Broncbusters had it tied at 12-12 but could never take control as Butler kept them at bay. Garden had a chance late closing the gap to one, 23-22 but a Milayna Hollinger kill and a Jaryn Benning kill would finish off the set and match with Butler taking set three 25-23.
Sophomore Amalie Rupertova played extremely well tonight finishing with 11 kills while hitting .346 on the night. Morgan Bryand added seven kills and 11 digs while Milayna Hollinger had five kills and no errors. Keera Parks chipped in four kills and two serving aces.
Butler got the win but coach Lechtenberg still knows there is more inside of this team. "I wouldn't say it was a clean volleyball match as it got pretty sloppy at times. I don't think we had the energy we would like to see but we did take care of our side and I think we knew towards the end when it started to get tight that we were the bigger team and would finish it off. We were comfortable, but we should never be comfortable. We tell them all the time to not be satisfied. We settled a little bit tonight and that's how it got close there in set three."
Butler (14-9, 6-6) has now won five of their last six matches and will travel to Independence to take on the Pirates (9-13, 5-6) on Wednesday, October 16 at 6:30pm before returning home on Friday, October 18 for a 6;30pm matchup with the Pratt Beavers.