Volleyball Takes
Two Matches At IWU Quad
Tihomirova and McGinnis lead Crusaders to Saturday sweep
Oct.
20, 2007
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Jacqui Gatt
(pictured) passed the 2,000 dig mark in Saturday's final match
against Indiana Wesleyan. |
GEORGETOWN
BOX SCORE
|
ONU BOX SCORE
|
IWU BOX SCORE
MARION, Ind. – The Madonna volleyball team took two of its three matches
this weekend at the Indiana Wesleyan Quad Match. MU opened the event with a hard
fought 3-2 loss to number 22 Georgetown on Friday night before rebounding to
take both of Saturday’s matches in sweeps over Olivet Nazarene and the host
Wildcats of IWU. Following the three games, Madonna is now 24-8 on the season.
GEORGETOWN
In a match that took over 2 ½ hours to play and saw the fifth game end at 20-18,
the MU volleyball team fell to 22nd ranked Georgetown (KY) 3-2 on
Friday night to open the IWU Quad. Junior all-American Lubovj Tihomirova led the
Crusaders with 29 kills and sophomore Mary McGinnis chipped in with 21 of her
own in the loss.
The Tigers took
game one in commanding fashion, downing MU 30-23 despite six kills from
Tihomirova. MU hit at just a .146 clip in the opening game, committing six
hitting errors.
Game two opened
like much like game one as Georgetown jumped out to a commanding 6-2 lead and
extended the lead to 13-10 before Madonna mounted a comeback to tie the match at
14-14 and then take a lead at 16-15 that it would not relinquish, finishing the
game on a 5-3 run to square the match at 1-1.
The third game
was again all Georgetown to start and MU head coach Jerry Abraham called a time
out down 7-1 as it looked like the Tigers would run away the game, but steady
MU play got the Crusaders back in the game and MU cut the GC lead to 10-9 and
forced the Tigers to call a time out. Madonna stayed with in two points and
untimetly tied the game at 21-all before extending the lead to 25-22 and forcing
Georgetown to call its second time out. From there the Crusaders used kills from
McGinnis and Whitney Fuelling to put the match away and take game three 30-25.
Game four was the
opposite of game three as MU held the early lead, but never by more than three
points. The two sides then traded points back and forth before GC took a 25-22
lead and Abraham called a time out. MU held off three game points from the
Tigers to cut the lead to 29-26 but a kill down the line ended that streak and
sent the match to a fifth and final game, tied at two.
The decisive game
five was even in the early going but Madonna slowly asserted itself and built
out an 11-8 lead before Georgetown called a time out. Coming out of the break,
the Crusaders reeled off two more point to make it 13-8 and force the Tigers to
burn a second time out. A Tihomirova kill made it 14-9 Madonna and put the
Crusaders just one point away from taking the match. Georgetown staved off
elimination, getting the game to 14-13 as miscommunication in the Madonna back
row allowed a serve to drop and on the next play GC tied the game at 14-all
before taking a 15-14 lead. MU tied it at 15-all and the two sides traded points
until a Tiger service error made it 18-17 Madonna, but the Crusaders could not
put another point on the scoreboard and fell 20-18.
OLIVET NAZARENE
Less than 14 hours after a five game battle with Georgetown, the Crusaders took
the court again, this time doing battle with Olivet Nazarene. The Tigers of ONU
were ranked second in Region VII coming into the match and gave Madonna a fight,
but the Crusaders took care of business, sweeping ONU 3-0.
Game one found
the Crusaders on the wrong end of the score early on before a Tihomirova service
ace squared the game at 5-5. The two sides traded points with Madonna taking a
14-10 lead and forcing Olivet Nazarene into a time out. The time out worked as
ONU sided out and the tied the match at 15-15 before the Crusaders took a four
point lead at 21-17.
The Tigers tied
the match at 22-22 by making a 5-1 run and stayed with in three points before
the Crusaders made it 28-24 and ONU called its second time out. The time out
worked as the Tigers cut the lead to 28-26 and then staved off game point by
making it 29-27 and 29-28 with two kills down the line. The Crusaders had seen
enough of that and ended the game on a McGinnis kill and took the first game
30-28.
Game two was all
Madonna as the Crusaders opened the game on a 7-3 run and were never threatened,
taking the second frame 30-19. Tihomirova added to her total with eight kills on
14 swings to pace MU.
The final game
was much like game two as the Crusaders were never really challenged, using five
Tihomirova kills to go along with from McGinnis and three more from Fuelling to
take game three 30-17 and the match 3-0.
Tihomirova once
again led the way with 19 kills while Inta Grinvalds posted 36 assists in the
win.
INDIANA WESLEYAN
The final match of the weekend saw the Crusaders take on the host Wildcats of
Indiana Wesleyan, and much like the first match on Saturday, MU rolled 3-0
behind 21 kills from Tihomirova, 19 from McGinnis and 10 from Fuelling.
Game one was the
tightest of the three as MU took it 30-25 and hit at just a .300 clip. Madonna
found itself down 4-2 early on but tied the match and took the lead at 10-9 and
coming out of an IWU time out at 11-9, a diving save by Jacqui Gatt on a ball
that was headed to the back left corner turned into a Fuelling kill to make it
12-9 and the Crusaders never looked back. IWU got to with in one at 15-14 but a
Grinvalds dump shot and timely kills from Tihomirova and McGinnis proved to be
enough as MU won 30-25.
Game two saw MU
trail only once at 1-0 before the Crusaders built out a lead slowly but surely
behind 10 more kills from Tihomirova and three from Stephanie Parslow to take
game two 30-23. Game three was more of the same with six kills from McGinnis and
four each from Fuelling and Tihomirova as MU cruised 30-24.
The Crusader
return to the court on Tuesday night for Senior Night against Davenport. First
serve is slated for 7:00pm with a ceremony honoring MU’s senior class of Jacqui
Gatt and Amy Szymanski prior to the match.
Notes from the
weekend
Senior Jacqui Gatt passed the 2,000 career dig plateau with her 23 against
IWU. Gatt also set a career high with 32 digs against Georgetown on Friday. The
Livonia, Mich., native now sits in sixth place all-time at MU with 2076 career
digs.
Lubovj Tihomirova needs just 25
more kills to hit 1,500 for her career as she sits at 1475 kills following this
weekend’s action.
Contact:
Patrick Moore, Sports Information Director
(734) 432-5834
pimoore@madonna.edu
