No. 1 WUSTL Volleyball Sweeps No. 23 Otterbein, No. 24 Concordia (Minn.) at ASICS National Invitational
OTTERBEIN BOX SCORE
CONCORDIA BOX SCORE
St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 8, 2012 -The No. 1-ranked Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team put together two of its best offensive matches of the season to earn a pair of three-set wins over No. 23 Otterbein University (25-18, 25-18, 25-19) and No. 24 Concordia College (Minn.) (25-12, 25-17, 25-22) on Saturday at the WU/ASICS National Invitational.
The Bears won the two-day tournament with a 4-0 record, while Otterbein finished 3-1. No. 12 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater posted a 2-2 record, while No. 11 Elmhurst College went 1-3 and Concordia finished 0-4 at the tournament. Junior outside hitter Meghan Byrne, senior outside hitter Drew Hargrave, and senior libero Kelly Pang were each named to the All-Tournament Team for Washington University. During the Bears’ win over Otterbein, Pang surpassed the 2,000 career digs mark. She finished the tournament with 82 digs in Washington U.’s four matches, bringing her career total to 2,026, which is just 19 shy of becoming the Bears’ all-time career digs leader.
#1 Washington U. 3, #23 Otterbein 0
Tied at 4-4 in the first set against Otterbein, sophomore right-side hitter Lindsay Juriga got a kill and then served five-straight points for the Bears to give them a 10-4 lead. Washington U. extended the lead to 13-5 with kills by freshman middle hitter Jackie Nelligan, senior setter Marilee Fisher and Hargrave. The Bears continued to control the match and Fisher finished off a long rally by winning a joust at the net to put Washington U. ahead 21-13. The Cardinals went on a 4-1 run to get to within five, but a kill by Hargrave made it 23-17, and a serving error and an attack error by Otterbein gave Washington U. the first-set win, 25-18.
Fisher served five points in a row in the second set to help Washington U. jump out to a 7-1 lead, which included two kills each by Hargrave and junior middle hitter Emily Tulloch. The Cardinals battled back to tie the score at 13-13, before a service error gave the Bears a 14-13 lead. Fisher then served seven-straight points, including an ace, to open up a 21-13 lead for Washington U. Otterbein closed the gap to 23-17, but two service errors by the Cardinals ended the set, 25-18 in favor of Washington U.
Otterbein took an early 4-2 lead in the third set, but a kill by Byrne and five-straight points served by Tulloch gave Washington U. an 8-4 advantage and forced the Cardinals to take a timeout. The Bears used an 8-4 run following the timeout, including three kills by Hargrave, to open up a 16-8 lead. After Otterbein scored two points to get to within 16-10, a service error by the Cardinals and an ace by Pang quickly made it an eight-point difference again. Otterbein was able to get to within four points down the stretch, but the Bears won the third set, 25-19, to sweep the match.
As a team, Washington U. hit .321 in the match with 46 kills. Hargrave paced the Bears with 14 kills and five digs, while Byrne finished with 12 kills on 26 swings while hitting .423 in the match. Fisher tallied 38 assists and seven digs. Pang led the Bears defensively with 12 digs, and in her first start of the season, Juriga tallied a career-best nine digs, three assists and four kills.
#1 Washington U. 3, #24 Concordia 0
Concordia played evenly with the Bears to open the match, trading points until a kill by Nelligan tied the score at 8-8. Washington U. was able to take a 10-9 lead after kills by Hargrave and Nelligan. Freshman defensive specialist Anna Bryniarski then served eight points in a row for the Bears to give them an 18-9 lead. A kill by Hargrave stretched the lead to 22-11, and back-to-back kills by Byrne and Nelligan gave Washington U. a 25-12 win in the opening set.
The second set started similarly to the first, with the teams playing to a 7-7 tie before Juriga served five-straight points, which included three kills by Nelligan, to make it 12-7 in favor of the Bears. Hargrave drove home a kill to extend the Washington U. lead to 20-11, before Concordia put together a 6-1 run to pull to within 21-17. Freshman middle hitter Nkiru Udenze had two kills down the stretch as the Bears closed out the set with four unanswered points to win, 25-17.
In the final set, a kill by Hargrave put the Bears ahead 9-5 early. Washington U. stretched it to a nine-point difference (18-9) on a block by Nelligan and freshman right-side hitter Allison Zastrow. A hitting error by the Bears brought Concordia to within 23-20, but Byrne followed with a kill to make it 24-20. The Cobbers fought off two match-point opportunities for Washington U., before ended the match with a kill, 25-22.
The Bears finished with a .312 hitting percentage in the match with 47 kills and just eight errors in 125 swings. Hargrave again led the way, finishing with 13 kills, four digs and three blocks. Nelligan tallied a career-high nine kills on 16 swings for an impressive .562 hitting percentage. Fisher finished with 26 assists, and Pang had 20 digs.
Washington University (10-0) will travel to Springfield, Ohio, for its first road matches of the season on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 14-15. The Bears are scheduled to face four more ranked teams, including the past two NCAA Division III National Champions. Washington U. will open the tournament by facing the host team, defending champion and No. 5-ranked Wittenberg University at 3:30 p.m. (ET) on Sept. 14. The Bears are then scheduled to square off against No. 3 Calvin College, the 2010 National Champion, at 8 (ET) that evening. The following day, Washington U. will take on No. 22 Heidelberg University and No. 8 Hope College.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. now has an overall record of 429-48 (.899) in matches at the WU Field House since 1985 … Saturday was the first-ever meeting between Washington University and Otterbein … The Bears improved to 5-0 all-time against Concordia.