Volleyball: Mountaineers Fall in Five
October 23, 2004 06:12 PM | General
October 23, 2004
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| Zolna |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team fell 3-2 (24-30, 36-34, 30-26, 29-31, 12-15) to BIG EAST foe Villanova in a tightly contested match on Saturday, Oct. 23, at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers (14-9, 1-2) were unable to take control at any point in the first game of the match. Villanova crept out to an early 9-6 lead and used a 6-0 run midway through the contest to take a 22-14 lead. West Virginia rattled off four points in a row to make the score 22-18, but the Wildcats proved to be too much and took the game by a score 30-24.
West Virginia struggled out of the blocks in game two and trailed by a score of 20-13 heading into a Mountaineer timeout. After scoring a point to regain control of the serve, freshman Abby Tevis accepted the serving duties and helped WVU score six consecutive points to tie the game at 20.
The two squads traded points the rest of the way and West Virginia used timely attacks from senior Alison Zemanski and juniors Stephanie Zolna and Julie Hockenson to win the contest by a 36-34 margin.
The third game of the day belonged to West Virginia from the outset. The Mountaineers controlled the opening portion of the game and took a 5-0 lead behind two service aces from Tevis. Villanova came back with a 4-0 run of its own but the Mountaineers proved to be too much as they scored five of the next six points to take a 10-5 lead. After owning a sizeable advantage through the course of the game, West Virginia allowed Villanova to battle back to within one at 27-26, but WVU scored three in a row to win the contest by a score of 30-26.
Neither squad owned a lead larger than three through the initial part of game four. With the Mountaineers up one at 24-23, WVU scored five of the next six points to take a 29-24 lead. With West Virginia only having to score one point to secure the match, Villanova stiffened and rattled off seven consecutive points to shock the home crowd and take the game by a 31-29 margin.
The Mountaineers did their best to shake off the disappointment of game four, but the Wildcats used their momentum to overpower West Virginia in the fifth game. The two teams battled back and forth early and played to an 11-11 tie before Villanova scored four of the final five points to close out the match with a 15-12 game five victory.
Zolna led the Mountaineers both offensively and defensively after registering 26 kills to go along with 30 digs. Zemanski finished with 18 kills while Hockenson had 13.
Brandice Studnicka recorded 64 assists to lead the Mountaineer setters. A total of six players finished with a double-digit number of digs. Aside from Zolna’s 30, Tevis tallied 22, Studnicka registered 19, Aurora Ebert-Santos recorded 16, Ashley Pappas had 11 and Gina Cusanelli finished with 10.
West Virginia looks to get back on the winning track tomorrow when they host BIG EAST rival Georgetown at 2 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum.
