AVE MARIA, Fla. --- The Ave Maria volleyball team defeated Webber International, 3-0, on Saturday afternoon to improve to 4-4 on the season in Sun Conference play. The win was the first for Ave Maria against Webber in program history, AMU had been 0-21 against the Warriors.
 
The Gyrenes held the edge in kills, 39-21, and had a 14-7 advantage in service aces. AMU was two aces shy of tying the school record for service aces in a three-set match. The record of 16 aces was set Aug. 26, 2016 against Johnson & Wales.
 
Ave Maria opened the match on a 5-1 run, getting two early kills from Flavia Rusterholz. Webber stayed in the set and after three-straight points, held an 11-10 edge. Eight straight from AMU on Katie Grose's serve put the Gyrenes in front 18-11. Katie O'Donnel, Rusterholz, and Erica Chenard each had a kill in the run for AMU.
 
After Webber stopped the AMU 8-0 run, the Gyrenes came back with another 6-0 run to get to set-point, 24-12. O'Donnell's three service aces highlighted the six-point spurt by the Gyrenes. Rusterholz closed out the set with a kill to seal AMU's 25-16 opening set win.
 
The second set was the most competitive. Webber jumped out to a 6-4 lead. Later in the set, three-straight points by the Warriors tied the match at 13. AMU then went on a 4-0 run to take a 17-13 lead. AMU took advantage of a couple WIU attack errors and O'Donnell's fourth service ace in the run.
 
After Ave Maria took a 21-16 lead, Webber scored four straight to pull within one, 21-20. With the match tied at 22, kills by Alejandra Suarez, Chenard, and then Natalia De Leon on Charlotte Caro's serve closed out the set 25-22.
 
Leading 3-2 in the third, Ave Maria won the next eight points to sprint out to an 11-2 lead. Victoria Schein had two service aces and AMU had four kills in the eight-point spurt. Webber closed the gap to five on a couple occasions but wouldn't get any closer. Chenard finished the set, 25-18, and the match with a kill.
 
Rusterholz finished with a match-high 10 kills. Madelyn Haut added eight kills with a .467 hitting percentage. Chenard and Grose each tallied five kills. Grose led AMU with 24 assists. She also had six digs and three service aces.
 
Schein had a match-best 13 digs and four aces. O'Donnell finished with five service aces and eight digs.
 
With no conference games next week for AMU, the Gyrenes will travel to Florida College on Friday for a non-conference match-up. First serve will be at 7 p.m.