The Oglethorpe volleyball team picked up a comprehensive victory over Wesleyan (Georgia) in three sets Wednesday night with a 25-17, 25-7, 25-9 scoreline. The result improves the Stormy Petrels to 6-23 on the season. 

The first set was a tight, back-and-forth affair for much of it. Wesleyan built a 7-4 lead, but the Petrels came back with a 6-1 run to tie it 7-7 and then push into the lead, 10-8. The Wolves responded with a 5-2 mini-run to take a 13-12 advantage briefly, but the Petrels responded from that point with a huge run to end the set. They ran off a 13-4 spurt to take back control of the set and finish it off, 23-17.

Having dispatched Wesleyan in the competitive first set, the Petrels proceeded to blow out the Wolves in the remaining two. Though Wesleyan took a 3-0 lead early in the second, the Petrels responded by finishing the set on a 25-4 run. The stretch included runs of eight straight and 10 straight points by the Petrels.

The third set was close for the first half of the stanza. It was tied 4-4 before the Petrels went on an 8-2 run to take a 12-6 advantage. Soon after, they finished the set off with a 12-1 stretch to push to a 25-9 victory, finishing off the match 3-0. Combining the two stretches, the Petrels finished the set on a 22-5 run.

Freshman setters Hannah Masiongale and Alette Duan both finished with double-figures in assists. Duan passed out 18 of them while Masiongale recorded 10. Four Petrels tied for the team lead in kills with five (Lexi Grams, Halli Nelson, Kaitlyn Woodruff and Ashlee Tolbert) while four also tied for the team lead with four digs (Taylor Cherry, Savannah Grove, Gianna Zitello and Masiongale). 

"Obviously, I'm happy with the road win," said Head Coach Richie Tang. "We had a sluggish first set, though, and that is something we need to improve. We made several lineup changes for the second and third sets and the unit on the floor did a fantastic job. They had great effort and energy and that is important against any team we play. For the two remaining non-conference matches on our schedule and the upcoming SAA Tournament, we need to execute cleaner and have high energy and effort to be the team we know we can be."

The Petrels will round out the regular season Saturday as part of a tri-match against Fisk and Piedmont. They'll take on Fisk at 11 a.m. and go against Piedmont at 3 p.m. Piedmont and Fisk will also play each other at 1 p.m. to complete the tri-match. After that, the eighth-seeded Petrels will travel to Conway, Arkansas, to take on top-seeded Hendrix in the SAA Tournament quarterfinals next Friday.