Volleyball: WVU Edged By Pitt in Finale
November 16, 2002 10:14 PM | General
By Brady Smith for MSNsportsNET.com
November 16, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University volleyball team (9-19, 3-10) won the first two games but dropped the final three in a heartbreaking loss to conference power Pitt (20-9, 9-4), 3-2 (31-29, 30-26, 19-30, 26-30, 11-15), Saturday evening at the WVU Coliseum.
The first game featured long rallies and hard-fought points that one would expect in such a fierce rivalry. The Panthers were up 29-27 before the Mountaineers tallied four straight unanswered points to capture the game.
Ahead only 27-26 in the second game, kills by senior Lindsay Spieler and junior Dimitra Havriluk put the Mountaineers up by three points before freshman Stephanie Zolna's ace put WVU ahead 2-0 in the match.
Pitt then pulled ahead, winning the next two games decisively while holding the Mountaineers to hitting percentages of -.154 and .060.
West Virginia rallied from a 2-7 deficit in game five to pull within one, but Pitt proved to be too much for the Mountaineers and captured the game and the match.
Havriluk tallied a season-high 28 digs on the match and added nine kills and four blocks. Freshman Julie Hockenson led WVU with 15 kills and notched six blocks while sophomore Alison Zemanski added 13 kills and paced West Virginia with eight blocks.
Megan Miller led Pitt with 16 kills and Megan McGrane paced her squad with 23 digs.
"We played extremely well in the first two games but we couldn't hold on," said coach Veronica Hammersmith, who remains three wins from 500 for her career.
It was the final match of WVU's season and the last for Mountaineer seniors Rebecca Kosnac, Lindsay Spieler and Erica Montana, who were honored prior the match.
