MU Adds WHAC Tourney Title To '07 Resume
Crusaders
to host NAIA Region VIII Tournament next weekend in LIvonia
Nov.
10, 2007
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The Crusaders captured
the 2007 WHAC Tournament Championship on Saturday with a 3-0 win
over Cornerstone. |
BOX SCORE
DEARBORN, Mich. – Behind 26 kills from All-American Lubovj
Tihomirova and a team .324 hitting percentage, the Madonna volleyball team
downed Cornerstone 3-0 (30-18, 30-27, 30-22) on Saturday (Nov. 10) in Dearborn
to capture the 2007 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Tournament
Championship. With the win MU earns the right to host the NAIA Region VIII
Tournament next Friday and Saturday in the Activities Center and the Crusaders
will be the top-seeded WHAC team in the six-team field.
The opening game
was all Madonna as the Crusaders raced out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back,
holding as much as a seven point edge on two separate occasions – at 19-12 and
at 21-14, before using a three point run with Amy Szymanski at the
service line with kills from Whitney Fuelling, Tihomirova and Inta
Grinvalds to make it 28-16. A Tihomirova kill made it 29-17 MU and a CU
service error ended the game with MU holding the 30-18 edge.
As lopsided as
game one was, game two of the match was much more even as the two sides traded
points with neither side holding a lead of more than three until a blocking
error on CU’s Tori Egerer gave MU an 18-14 lead and another Tihomirova kill made
it 19-14. The Golden Eagles rallied back to tie the match at 20-all and took a
lead at 22-21 on an attack error by Tihomirova.
Madonna tied the
score at 22 and the sides once again traded points before the Crusaders took a
29-27 lead on a Fuelling kill and ended the game on a Mary McGinnis kill
off a back set from Grinvalds, taking the second game 30-27.
Game three was an
even affair until Madonna pulled away with the match tied at 19-19 with an 11-3
run to end the match, using four straight kills from Tihomirova to seal the
championship for the Crusaders.
Tihomirova led
the Crusaders with her 26 kills and was joined in double figures by Fuelling and
McGinnis, who had 14 and 13 respectively. Grinvalds handed out 54 assists while
Jacqui Gatt posted 25 digs. Holly Cousins and Rebecca Baker had 12 kills each
for Cornerstone.
Prior to the
match, the WHAC awards were handed out and MU took home a truck load of hardware
as Fuelling, Gatt, Grinvalds and Tihomirova were all named to the first team and
McGinnis and Stephanie Parslow were selected to the honorable mention
team. Tihomirova and Gatt took home the big awards with being named Player of
the Year and Gatt taking home Libero of the Year. Parslow was also selected as
the Crusaders’ representative on the WHAC Champion of Character team as the
student-athlete who best represents the NAIA’s five core values. Gatt, Fuelling,
Szymanski and Tihomirova were named to the WHAC’s All-Academic Team as well.
In the
consolation match earlier in the day, Indiana Tech earned itself a spot in the
regional as well, upsetting second-seeded UM-Dearborn 3-1. Tech got 13 kills
from Korrine Lewis and 11 each from Ashtyn Humerickhouse and Erin McCann to pull
the upset. UMD was led by Kristi Igo and Jamie Woznaik who posted 11 kills each.
Contact:
Patrick Moore, Sports Information Director
(734) 432-5834
