LIVONIA,
Mich. --
The Madonna University
volleyball team dropped the nightcap of the 7th Annual Julie
Martin Memorial Tournament to Cedarville, 3-0 (30-25, 30-27, 30-21) on
Friday in the Activities Center. The loss is Madonna’s first loss at
home in a regular season contest since September 8, 2001 to Lake
Superior State University, which also came during the Julie Martin
Memorial Tournament.
“We simply got
outplayed tonight,” said Madonna head coach Jerry Abraham. “We just
played terrible and the other team played excellent. We didn’t pass and
didn’t attack and just didn’t play well enough to win tonight. Their
top players played very well tonight and we just didn’t play Madonna
style volleyball.”
Madonna middle hitter
Caryn Inman
(Oxford, MI/Oxford HS)
led Madonna with 19 kills, including eight in the first game. Freshman
setter
Inta Grinvalds
(Portage, MI/Portage Central HS)
added 33 assists for the Crusaders and
Jacqui Gatt
(Livonia, MI/Churchill HS)
recorded 21 digs on defense.
The
score of the first game stayed close as both the Crusaders and Yellow
Jackets exchanged points throughout most of the game. With the score
knotted at 18-18, Madonna outside hitter
Whitney Fuelling
(Highland MI/Western Michigan)
planted a kill in the middle of the Cedarville defense that was unable
to be handled. Junior defensive specialist
Amy Szymanski
(Livonia, MI/Ladywood HS)
dumped a ball over the net that found the floor before any Yellow Jacket
defender was able to get a hand on it to give Madonna a 19-18 lead.
Cedarville would rally
to take five of the next six points, forcing Abraham to call a timeout
with the Yellow Jackets leading, 23-20. Following the timeout,
Cedarville kept applying pressure to the Crusaders defense and again
forcing Madonna into a timeout situation with a 27-22 lead. The Yellow
Jackets then went on to win the first game, 30-25, behind a 12-6 run
which closed out the frame.
In game two, Cedarville
picked up where they left off in the previous game, sprinting out to a
5-0 start before the Crusaders called timeout. Madonna would rally to
tie the game 8-8 and battle Cedarville to a stale mate over the next
eight points before the Crusaders finally were able to take their first
lead of the game, 14-12.
Gatt provided the spark
for the Crusaders offensive, serving three straight points to give
Madonna the advantage. However, the Yellow Jackets would return the
favor and regain the lead at 15-14 and stretch their lead out to 22-19
before holding off Madonna’s late run in the game and picking up a 30-27
win.
The third game saw more
of the same from Cedarville as the Yellow Jackets surged into the final
frame, leading by as much as 10 points (21-11). Madonna was unable to
string together enough points to put a big enough dent in Cedarville’s
lead and the Yellow Jackets would go on to win the final game, 30-21.
“We have a lot of new
faces on the court,” said Abraham. “Sometime inexperience hurts us, but
that’s no excuse for the way we played. I wish we could play again in
an hour. We are going to make tonight a learning experience and I’m
sure these kids will play extremely well tomorrow.”
Madonna has two more
matches scheduled in the Julie Martin Memorial Tournament and will
return to action on Saturday at 12:15 p.m. versus Davenport University.
