DECATUR, Ill. - Marian University women's volleyball (7-3, 1-0 NACC) defeated Monmouth (Ill.) and Illinois College to open the Millikin Invitational.

The Sabres opened the day with a sweep of Monmouth (Ill.) behind scores of 25-20, 25-20, and 25-21.  The Sabre offense had a dominating match recording 43 kills to only six errors for a .420 attack percentage.  Sophomore Serina Pehowski led the way for Marian with 14 kills without an error for a .636 hitting percentage.  She was also able to record three solo blocks and four assisted blocks.

Fellow sophomore Kaitlyn Merrill also played well producing 12 kills off of a .423 hitting percentage.  In the back row, senior Brooklyn Taylor made 17 digs in the win, while sophomore Anna Tapia made nine digs to go with 38 assists.

Marian then found themselves in their fourth match of the season that needed five sets with the Sabres managing to pull out a victory late.  The set scores for match two on the day were 25-20, 17-25, 21-25, 25-23, and 15-9.

The Sabre defense played a pivotal role in the second victory with three Sabres recording 20 or more digs.  Taylor paced the defense again with 23 digs, and junior Reagan Brown and sophomore Reagan Jasica each had 20 digs.

Merrill continued to lead the offense recording a match-best 18 kills, while Pehowski had another four total blocks.  Tapia finished with a double-double assisting on 39 kills with 10 digs.

The Sabres have now won six matches in a row with three of those victories being sweeps.  This winning stretch is also the longest streak of victories since the 2003 season.

Marian closes out the Millikin Invitational against Blackburn at noon and Greenville at 4 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 18.