Box Score
INDIANAPOLIS – The Seton Hall Pirates swept Butler on Saturday evening 25-23, 26-24, 27-25. With the setback, Butler moves to 16-11 overall with a 5-6 record against BIG EAST opponents.
The Bulldogs were led by outside hitter
Anna Logan who recorded a double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs. Logan was the only BU player to reach a double figure kill total as
Whitney Beck ended the contest with nine.
Beck added 10 digs for BU, helping the Bulldogs record 64 on the night. The team leader was libero
Taylor Takeda who tallied 19.
The setter role was split against Seton Hall with
Makayla Ferguson playing in the first two sets and
Maddie Freiwald taking over in the third. Ferguson tallied 16 assists, six digs and three blocks during her time while Freiwald added 15 assists and eight digs.
Butler controlled the action up front with 12.5 team blocks.
Jessica Klingensmith came off the bench to lead the team with seven. Logan and
Bri Lilly each added four.
The Pirates were led by Abby Thelen who registered a game-high 21 digs. Seton Hall was without Cherise Hennigan who led the team in kills during the first meeting between the two programs.
Seton Hall jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the opening set by claiming a 25-23 victory. The back and forth battle featured Butler scoring five of the first six points of the set, but a 10-2 Pirate run would give Seton Hall the edge. The Bulldogs regained their composure to take a slim lead with a 5-1 run and the two evenly matched teams would head into crunch time locked up at 20-20.
BU scored two-straight to open up a 22-20 lead, but four-straight Pirate points would follow pushing SHU to set point. Butler got a kill from Klingensmith to stay alive, but a kill from Abby Thelen would end the action 25-23. Thelen led all players with seven kills in set one while Logan paced BU with five.
Seton Hall enjoyed a 2-0 lead at the break by securing a 26-24 win. Butler came out strong once again to grab a 6-2 lead, but an 8-1 scoring run from the Pirates would offset the opening stages of set two. After a lengthy delay regarding the BU rotation, the Pirates would once again steal the momentum by going on a 5-0 scoring run.
The streak pushed the score to 18-13 and the Pirates would hold that cushion all the way up to 22-17. The Bulldogs continued to fight however and a total team effort would allow BU to tie the set at 24-24. The comeback was highly entertaining, but would fall just short with Seton Hall getting back-to-back kills from Madison Salkowski to edge the home team 26-24.
The third and final set was another nail-biter that featured large scoring runs. Butler broke a 5-5 tie to claim a 12-6 lead, but couldn't hold on as the Pirates pulled even at 19-19.
The back and forth battle would continue all the way to 25-25. Thelen would put the Pirates in front with a kill off a Sophia Coffey assist and Coffey would then feed the ball to Salkowski who came up with the game-winner.
Butler will end the month of October with an away match at Xavier on Thursday, the 27. The contest between the Bulldogs and the Musketeers will stream live on the BIG EAST Digital Network beginning at 6 PM.
