Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – The 2016 Butler volleyball season opener was jammed pack with excitement as Gonzaga and Butler battled through five sets to declare a winner. In the end, Gonzaga would pull through to win the event 3-2 (25-19, 17-25, 30-28, 22-25, 15-11).
 
"We dropped a well-fought five set match to a very balanced top 50 team," Head Coach Sharon Clark said. "What an amazing performance from Anna Logan," Clark added. "To post a double-double in the season opener and to end the match just one shy of 30 kills!"
 
Logan moved into a tie for fourth place all-time at Butler with 29 total kills against Gonzaga, just three shy of tying the school single-match record of 32. The last Bulldog to reach 29 kills in a match was All-American Belle Obert who reached the total during the 2014 season.
 
Logan was tremendous in the opener to record 29 kills off 62 swings (.355). She was second on the team with 20 digs and also contributed three assists and two blocks. The Butler team leader in digs was newcomer Taylor Takeda who recorded 30 in her BU debut. Takeda played in all five sets and also supplied Butler with seven assists.
 
"Taylor played awesome and started her BU career by getting in the 30 dig club," Clark stated. "We also saw a good offensive effort from freshman Brooke Gregory."
 
Joining Logan with a double-double in the opener was setter Makayla Ferguson. The junior led Butler with 58 assists while chipping in defensively with 12 digs. Other Bulldogs that stood out in the box score included Brooke Gregory and Whitney Beck. Each player tallied 13 kills and just missed a double-double by coming up with eight and nine digs respectively.
 
The first five points of the 2016 regular season came in from five different student-athletes, but costly errors would allow Gonzaga to hold off Butler in the first set 25-19. Set two was a different story as Butler led from start to finish (25-17) to knot the match at 1-1.
 
Set three went into extra points as the two sides came together at 25-25. The score ran forward to 28-28 before Gonzaga rattled off two-straight to take the 2-1 lead. McKayla Ferris put the Bulldogs at set point and a BU attack error would end the set 30-28. Butler bounced back to take the fourth set 25-22. The final three points went to Logan who broke the 22-22 tie with three-straight kills.
 
Set five was more of the same as the two evenly matched teams came together at 11-11. The momentum would shift to Gonzaga after a service ace and Butler was not able to recover with the Zags ending the match on a 4-0 run.
 
Gonzaga took control of the first set with a 4-0 run down the stretch that increased their advantage to 21-15. Whitney Beck would stop the run will a kill off the Makayla Ferguson assist, but Imani Wimbush would seal the win with a kill from Jenna Kuehn just moments later.
 
The Bulldogs put their foot on the gas in the second set to open up an 11-4 lead. Anna Logan set the tone while freshman Brooke Gregory also impacted the action. Gonzaga's attempt to climb back into the set would get within two points at 18-16, but a 4-0 BU run would push the Bulldogs over the top.
 
The Bulldogs will return to action tomorrow by playing a pair of matches on Saturday. The first contest will put BU up against Idaho State at 2 PM. The weekend will come to a close with a 9 PM match against the Utes.