MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Millersville Marauders looked to continue their winning ways against the Dominican (N.Y.) Chargers, and that's exactly what happened. The hosts dominantly swept the first match, winning each set by an average of 10 points. That momentum carried into the latter half and led to a 3-1 victory in match two. 

MATCH ONE:  

The outcome of the day was not clear from the start, as both teams took a couple points to settle in. The first point that had more than one round of passing on each side of the court put the Marauders up 9-8. Millersville head coach Brian Smith took the first timeout of the match to refocus his team with the score 12-11. At that point, most of the opposition's scores had come by way of Marauder miscues. Smith's team responded with a sudden 13-3 run fueled by dominance at the net; leading the way in kills were middles Sam White and Caroline Halsey, who tallied five and two kills, respectively. 
 
The hosts grabbed an early 7-1 lead in the second set and never looked back. They took their biggest lead of the day up 20-7 a while later and finished on top, 25-14. Taylor Welter played well all day and recorded seven kills in the game to pace her team. The final set was more of the same; Alex Nava started and landed consecutive service aces as part of a five-point run to start. The closest Dominican got after that was within three at 7-4, but Millersville ended any chances of a comeback with a 6-1 run in response. Also notable in this set was the first appearance of redshirt freshman Kinsey Reuwer, who missed all of 2023 with an injury.
 
The hosts were squarely in charge after that initial timeout in the first set; they outscored the Chargers by 31 after that point. The Marauders did so by passing well and allowing the visitors to make mistakes, as they recorded a hitting percentage that was nearly double Dominican's. They were also more effective on the service, tallying 13 aces to the opposition's three. 

MATCH TWO:

With the score in the first match being so one-sided, both teams went with different lineups for the second match. Even so, it began the same way the first match ended: with a five-nothing Millersville run. Kylee Schurig started it off with a kill and then contributed three more points via consecutive service aces to set the tone. The final score was 25-17, but Dominican stuck with the Marauders a bit longer in this one. It was a 10-3 run with the hosts up 13-11 that put the game away. The first kill in that stretch was the first in the career of freshman Olivia Jones, who made her debut. It was a bit unusual, a serve reception that landed in the middle of the Charger's side of the court. 
 
Set two was closer, finishing 25-20 in favor of the 'Ville. Despite the Marauder's deeper rotation, their powerful arms were still too much for Dominican to overcome. Welter, Emma Kerwin, White, Schurig, and Nava all wreaked havoc on the opposition. The third set held other plans for the Marauders, as they started slow and gave the visitors their first lead since the first set of the day. That led to the Chargers' first set win of the day. The fourth set was close in the beginning, but ended up mirroring set one more than set three; Dominican held an 8-6 lead at one point but Millersville snuffed their chances of a comeback out with a match-ending 19-9 run. 

POSTGAME REACTION FROM BRIAN SMITH: 

• On the turnaround timeout in match one: "I emphasized that they were not winning points; we were giving them away. The score was 12-11. We had five hitting errors, one net violation, and one zero pass. So that's eight points out of 11. I'm trying not to repeat what we've done in the past with these slow starts.  I want them to understand that they just need to clean things up quicker. There's no reason to start any first set with that many errors."
• On what he wanted to learn from match two:  "There were some things we were looking at. We've been playing Kylie on the right, and we've had our two outsides be Taylor and Kerwin. But there's times when one of those hitters will struggle, so we were trying to answer a couple questions: do you go right to the bench, and how is Alex going to come in and do? (Or do you flip this to Kylie and Kerwin to have Kerwin hit right side and Kylie hit outside? So those were some things I was just trying to get a feel for."

GAME NOTES

• Three Marauders made their season or career debuts: Reuwer entered for the first time in her career at 21-10 in set three of match one, Jones did so at 11-8 in the first set of match two and Madison Williams made her season debut at the beginning match two's second set. 
• The Marauders' record against the Chargers moves to 6-1 all-time. Millersville recorded its fourth sweep of the series in the first match. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Millersville tallied 13 service aces in both matches; that would have been the team's most in a single match in 2023. 
• After not recording a single block in match one, the Marauders had 11 total in match two. That's the most they have had in a single match since Sept. 5, 2021. Millersville posted 11 total blocks against USciences that day. 

UP NEXT:

• The Marauders host Georgian Court for one last home match before heading to Florida. That match is scheduled to start at 6 pm on Monday, Sept. 16.