Tuesday's evening match against Ottawa University junior varsity was a mid-week tune up game for Butler volleyball, who defeated the Braves in straight sets 25-20, 25-18, 25-13.
Even though Butler swept the Braves in three sets, the match did not start out so promising for the Grizzlies. Ottawa came out in set one and took a 7-0 lead to start the match.
"That's something we are going to work on in practice the next couple days. Coming out and starting a lot strong than we are doing right now," said Butler head coach Lisa Lechtenberg on the rough start for the Grizzlies. ""In our conference, you can't spot somebody five to eight points before we get started."
After a Lechtenberg timeout, the Grizzlies finally found their groove and started playing like the team they can be.
"I told them we need to play Butler volleyball," said Lechtenberg in the timeout, "We need to take care of our side, do our job on our side and that will take care of the match."
A Jaryn Benning serving run of seven straight helped the Grizzles scrap their way back into the game taking a 19-14 lead. Butler would finish the set on a Yoana Tsaneva kill to win 25-20.
Ottawa would score the first point of each of the remaining two sets, but Butler was too much to handle for the Braves. The Grizzlies took set two 25-18, then rolled to a 25-13 victory in the final third set.
"We obviously could have done a lot better but we still pulled out the win," said freshman outside Morgan Bryand.
Morgan Bryand finished the night with 12 kills, eight digs and three blocks. Amalie Rupertova tallied up 11 kills with nine digs. Sydney Scanlon quarterbacked the offense finishing with 29 set assists.
The Grizzlies (5-5, 0-3) have now won three straight and will dive back into conference play this Saturday, Sept. 14 when they head to Dodge City to take on the Conquistadors (0-10, 0-3) in a 2:00 pm matchup.
"We need a win," Said Lechtenberg on this weekend's match. "We are both 0-3 in conference and we need to get over that little monkey on our back in conference. We hope we can just play Butler volleyball."
