Sept. 9, 2006

Box Score

ANN ARBOR, MICH. - In its final game of the Michigan/Pepsi Challenge Saturday morning, the Marquette volleyball team dropped a hard-fought battle to Virginia, 3-0 (25-30, 26-30, 29-31), in Ann Arbor, Mich. Despite 19 kills in the match from junior Kimberley Todd, the Golden Eagles finished with a 1-2 record in the tournament and fell to 3-6 on the season.

Marquette and Virginia (7-2) started the match deadlocked as neither team was able to make any sort of run or take a significant lead. The first 20 points featured seven ties and four lead changes.

Tied at 9-9, the Cavaliers went on a 4-0 run to take a 13-9 lead and maintained the four-point advantage until the Golden Eagles used a timeout, down 15-11.

MU capitalized out of the break, scoring four unanswered points, including kills by Todd senior Jamie Mueller, to tie the game at 15-15.

Virginia responded in a hurry, using a 4-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at that point, 22-17. MU was forced to use their second timeout seven serves later, still trailing by four at 25-21.

The Golden Eagles were able to score the first point after the huddle, but the Cavaliers held tough, increasing their lead to six at 28-22.

Marquette cut the lead to 28-25, scoring the next three points, two on kills by Mueller, but Virginia held on in the end, winning game one, 30-25.

Todd tallied seven kills in the first game to lead the Golden Eagles.

Freshman Leslie Bielski set the tone early in the second frame, scoring the first point for Marquette with a monstrous kill from the left side.

Virginia scored the next two points to take the lead, but it was the only one it would see for quite a while.

The Golden Eagles scored six of the next eight points in the frame, taking a four-point lead at 8-4 on a block by junior Tiffany Helmbrecht, forcing a timeout by the Cavaliers. After the break, another block, this time by Helmbrecht and junior Jenn Brown, increased the MU lead to its largest of the game as it went ahead 9-4.

A strong offensive effort by the Golden Eagles helped to recover the lead, once again going ahead by four points at 23-19 on a kill by Todd, also forcing a second timeout by the Cavaliers.

Virginia used a 4-1 run out of the break, cutting the lead to just one at 24-23, but Marquette responded with a kill by Mueller and used a hitting error by the Cavaliers to increase its lead back to three at 26-23.

Two unanswered points by Virginia forced MU to use its first timeout as its lead was cut to one at 26-25, but following the break the Cavaliers took their second lead of the game with points on the next two serves, forcing a quick second timeout by the Golden Eagles.

Marquette was unable to regain control of the game as Virginia scored the next four points out of the break, completing its 7-0 run with a 30-26 game-two victory.

Looking to regain the momentum they held for much of the second frame, the Golden Eagles opened the third frame scoring the first six points, including three kills by junior Monica Renfrow.

MU increased its lead to eight at 10-2, its largest of the game, forcing a Virginia timeout.

Out of the huddle, the Cavaliers mounted a comeback, cutting the eight-point deficit in half at 14-10, before splitting the Golden Eagles' lead again at 16-14, causing a Marquette timeout.

Virginia completed the comeback, tying the game at 18-18 before taking its first lead of the game at 20-19. A two-point advantage soon forced a second Marquette timeout.

The Golden Eagles struggled to regain the lead as they soon found themselves down by three at 27-24, but a sudden surge of urgency and consecutive kills by Brown brought Marquette back to tie the game at 28-28.

MU regained the lead on a block by Brown and Helmbrecht and found itself one point away from a game-three victory.

The Cavaliers survived the game point, and then scored the next two, however, to win the game 31-29, and the match, 3-0.

Along with her 19 kills, Todd tallied 15 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Mueller added 10 kills and 16 digs, running her consecutive streak of double-doubles to eight games.

Helmbrecht led the Golden Eagles with seven blocks (2 BS, 5 BA) to tie a personal best.

Virginia was led by junior Sarah Kirkwood who registered 14 kills and 13 digs.

Marquette is back on the court, Sept. 15-16, when it hosts San Francisco, Stony Brook and Manitoba in the Marquette Challenge at the Al McGuire Center.