Abraham Ties Wins Record
In Sweep At Aquinas
September
16,
2008
BOX SCORE
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.
- -
Madonna head coach Jerry Abraham once again made his
claim for the best volleyball coach in NAIA history as the 2005 NAIA Hall of
Fame inductee won his 859th career match on Tuesday night as his sixth-ranked
Crusaders swept Aquinas 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-23) to improve to 15-1 overall and
2-0 in WHAC play in a match played at the AQ Fieldhouse.
After Friday's
3-2 win at Findlay, the stage was set for history tonight. Abraham - in his 22nd
season - started the year just five wins behind Swanson for the lead and after
winning 14 of the first 15 matches of the season, sat just one win behind the
MVNU head man coming into the key WHAC showdown.
The Crusaders,
who hit just .243 in the match, held the Saints to a .073 attacking percentage
by forcing the home team into 26 attack errors in 82 attempts. MU was guilty of
15 errors in 74 swings but put down 33 kills in the match.
Set one was all
Madonna as AQ could manage just one tie at 1-1 before MU built an 11-4 lead and
the Saints called time out. The Crusaders held their lead using kills from
Mary McGinnis and Whitney Fuelling to put the set away 25-17. AQ hit
-.037 in the set.
The second set
was much closer than the first as the two sides traded points for much of the
set before MU, leading 11-10 went on a 9-5 run to make it 20-15. Attacking
errors by MU allowed the Saints back into the set, as the MU lead was cut to
just three at 22-19 before the Crusaders used kills from McGinnis and Lubovj
Tihomirova to take set two 25-21.
The final set saw
Aquinas hold the lead early on at 15-10 before the Crusaders came storming back.
MU reeled off five straight points, four coming with Brynn Kerr at the
service line, getting kills from Fuelling, Inta Grinvalds and Tihomirova
to tie the set at 15-15. AQ took the lead back at 16-15 and again at 17-16
before MU took the lead for the first time at 18-17 on a ball handling error
charged to the Saints. The set was 20-20 and 22-all before the Crusaders got
three kills from McGinnis to put the match away with a 25-23 win and a 3-0
sweep.
McGinnis was the
offensive star for MU tonight as she put down 12 kills. Fuelling continued her
hot hitting, posting a .583 attack percentage with her eight kills on 12 swings
with just one error. Grinvalds had 20 assists while Kerr led the way with four
digs.
MU takes the next
week off and returns to the court on Sept. 23 in a home match against Concordia
at 7pm.
Contact:
Patrick Moore, Sports Information Director
(734) 432-5834
