New Orleans, La. - Continuing their six-match winning streak, the Knights defeated MidAmerica Nazarene Saturday morning finishing off the Big Easy Blastoff, hosted by Xavier (La.) University undefeated. The Marian volleyball team improve their overall record 9-1 and winning streak to seven, before conference play starts Wednesday. 

The Knights got up to an early 6-2 lead in set one with Khori Dryden and Mikayla Christiansen leading the team in kills early on. The Pioneer's fought back taking advantage of a few errors to take the lead over Marian 6-7. Dryden fought back to tie the set followed up by Sydney Schaffer claiming a service ace and a block from Sarah Bennett to take the lead back. Madison Brooks and Gabby Fish got in the mix with multiple kills to increase the lead 16-11. Marian took home the first set with back-to-back kills from Dryden to secure the 25-22 win in set one.

Nicole Wilkinson and Fish open up the second set with back-to-back kills to take the early lead. Wilkinson, Fish, Dryden, and Brooks all had multiple kills early in the set to increase Marian's lead. The Knights had two 3-0 runs in the middle of the match with Christiansen, Fish, and Wilkinson highlighting the runs with crucial kills at the net to increase the lead 18-10 and cause MNU to call a timeout. After a few back and fourth point trades Marian went on a 4-0 run started by Dryden's kill to win the second set 25-13.

Marian opened up the third set with a 4-0 run led by Wilkinson's kill from Logan Smith's set. MNU claimed crucial points to claim the lead from the Knights. Evie Dart got her hand in the mix with a kill to start a 3-0 run to tie up the set with the Pioneers. The third set was a very back and fourth battle with the set being tied 10 times before the Knights went on a 3-0 run after a service and attack errors from MNU. The Pioneers ended up pulling ahead in extra points to claim a 28-26 win over the Knights. 

Marian dominated in the fourth set with a 7-0 run at the start of the set highlighted by Emma Hirchak's kill to start the run and Wilkinson and Fish claiming crucial blocks and kills to take the 7-2 lead. The Knights went on a 5-0 run with Brooks and Christiansen claiming multiple kills each to increase their lead 15-7. Marian went on a 10-0 run to finish off the set with Dart claiming three service aces and Christiansen claiming six kills in the run to claim the 25-8 win in the set and the 3-1 win overall on the match.

Christiansen led the team in kills with 16 while hitting .344, and Fish had 15 kills while a hitting percentage of .412. Dart led the team in serving aces with three and Christiansen had two. Smith led the team in assists with 31, and Sami Luttel had 20. Emma Lyons dominated in the back with 22 digs on the match. 

Marian will start conference play with a match against Spring Arbor on the road on Wednesday, September 4th at 7:00 p.m.

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