INDIANAPOLIS  – Behind 18 kills from junior Dzeni Hadzisehovic, the West Virginia volleyball team picked up its second win of the season with a 3-1 triumph of Charlotte at the IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational Saturday morning at The Jungle. The Mountaineers (2-3) took the match in set scores of 25-22, 21-25, 25-23 and 25-18.

 

Hadzisehovic had a career day, hitting .600 on 30 swings and posting six blocks. Caleah Wells also had a solid offensive outing with 13 kills and a trio of blocks. Bridgett Talia registered three service aces for the second consecutive match, adding six kills to go along with her serving.

 

“We played better, but are still working on little details,” said WVU coach Reed Sunahara. “We had some players come off the bench and play well for us, so it was good to have that depth.”

 

Morgan Montgomery notched her first career double-double, going for 11 kills and 12 digs in addition to an ace. Hannah Shreve tied for the team lead in blocks with six and hit. 286 with four kills. Gianna Gotterba dug a team-best 16 balls with Haley Roe and Brittany Sample each collecting eight digs.

 

WVU finished with an attacking percentage of .280, hitting .400 in the third set. The Mountaineers also posted 12.0 team blocks with 54 kills. Charlotte hit .126 with 7.0 blocks.

 

The Mountaineers overcame some early errors to comeback and hit .344 in the first set, with Hadzisehovic and Wells each hitting above .400 with four kills. Back-to-back ball handling errors on the 49ers gave West Virginia the 10-9 lead before a pair Hadzisehovic kills helped stretch the lead to 13-11. A trio of kills by Wells kept the Mountaineers in front, 16-14, and Talia put a pair through the pins to stretch the advantage to five at 22-17. The teams combined for three errors, but Sample put up a solo block to give WVU the 25-22 win for the 1-0 lead in the match.

 

Unable to sustain their offensive intensity from the first set, West Virginia had eight errors and hit .081 as Charlotte took set two. A 4-0 run gave the 49ers an 8-6 lead before back-to-back attacking errors on WVU pushed the lead to 15-11. The Mountaineers put together a 3-0 run on a pair of Montgomery kills, but Charlotte kept the 20-18 advantage. Montgomery found the court twice more, totaling five kills in the set, but the 49ers triumphed, 25-21, to tie the match 1-1.

 

West Virginia got back on track in set three, hitting .400 behind seven kills from Hadzisehovic for the win. She teamed with wells for a pair of early blocks to get the ball rolling, and the Mountaineers then rattled off four in a row to lead 14-6 after Hadzisehovic put down a kill. Charlotte put together four in a row to cut the deficit to one, at 18-17, and later took a 21-20 lead on a block. Sample registered a kill to tie the set before consecutive kills by Hadzisehovic put WVU back in front, 23-22. A kill by Abby Brown brought up set point and Hadzisehovic put down another to cap the set with a 25-23 win as the Mountaineers took a 2-1 lead in the match.

 

Hadzisehovic added seven more kills as the Mountaineers rolled through the fourth set, hitting .333 as a team. An early 5-0 run put WVU in front 6-1, and team kept the lead throughout the set. Charlotte came up with four consecutive points, but the Mountaineers stayed on top of the 16-11 score. Hadzisehovic came out of the timeout to put down a trio of kills, pushing the score to 19-12 and a late 4-0 run set up match-point for WVU with a 24-18 lead. A setting error on the 49ers finished things off as the Mountaineers took the set 25-18 to win the match, 3-1.

 

West Virginia returns to the court Saturday evening to close the tournament with a 6:30 p.m. tilt against host IUPUI.