Sept. 14, 2008

Green Bay-Marquette Box Score

Bowling Green-Marquette Box Score

MILWAUKEE--The Marquette volleyball team went 1-1 on the day as they beat in-state rival Green Bay, 3-1 (27-29, 25-16, 25-12, 25-19) before falling to the Bowling Green Falcons, 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-16, 15-13). The afternoon game against Green Bay was televised by Time Warner Cable Sports, Channel 32 and will be shown locally on tape-delay.

"I thought the team really played well this afternoon," said head coach Pati Rolf. "We struggled though in the latter sets against Bowling Green as our consistency and youth caught up with us."

For their efforts in the two matches today and the match against Temple yesterday, junior setter Caryn Mastandrea, senior outside hitter Ashlee Fisher and sophomore middle blocker Rabbecka Gonyo were named to the Marquette Challenge All-Tournament Team.

Against the Green Bay Phoenix, a kill by sophomore Leslie Bielski started the scoring in the first set as MU took the 1-0 lead. In a set that saw six lead changes and 12 ties, neither team gained much of an advantage. Down 7-8, Katie Vancura slammed home a kill on a set from Mastandrea to tie the game at 8-8. From that point, Marquette took the lead on a service ace from freshman Tiara Russell and would lead until a kill by Green Bay's Liesl Tesch tied the game at 15-15. After the Phoenix took the lead, MU stayed right with them, eventually tying the game at 23-23, 24-24, 25-25 and 26-26 before taking a 27-26 lead on a kill by Bielski. Green Bay then grabbed three straight points to take the set 29-27. In the first frame, Mastandrea had a set-high 16 assists while Fisher contributed six kills.

The Golden Eagles got off to a slow start in the second set as the Phoenix scored the first three points to take a 3-0 lead before MU responded to tie the game at 3-3 with the help of kills from Mastandrea and Fisher. After the Phoenix took back the lead, MU reclaimed it on a kill from Russell to put the Golden Eagles up 8-7. With the set sitting at 11-11, MU went on a 8-1 run and effectively put the set out of reach, winning it 25-16. Fisher led the way for Marquette in the second stanza with four kills and no errors.

In the third set, the Golden Eagles fell behind once again, trailing Green Bay 4-1. From that point, MU rallied to tie the set at 6-6 before taking the lead on a kill from Katie Vancura at 7-6. Up 15-9, the Golden Eagles scored eight straight points with three kills from Fisher and two from Gonyo to take their largest lead at 23-9. Another kill from Gonyo and an error by Green Bay's Abby Bergsma ended the set at 25-12. In the third set the Phoenix recorded a six attack errors to five kills, leading to a negative attack percentage.

Marquette started off strong in the fourth set as they built a 3-1 advantage after a service ace by freshman libero Amy Deelo. Green Bay battled back to tie the set at 6-6 before the Golden Eagles took a lead at 7-6 that they would never relinquish, winning the set 25-19 and taking the match.

Fisher had a double-double against the Phoenix with 16 kills and 10 digs while Gonyo led MU with 18 kills and four blocks. Deelo led the Golden Eagles with 26 digs and Mastandrea continued her string of solid games with 48 assists and 15 digs.

In the first set against Bowling Green, the Golden Eagles got off to a fast start, taking a 6-1 lead on a kill by Fisher before three straight service aces by Deelo extended the MU lead to 10-2. Coming out of a Bowling Green timeout, the Golden Eagles got kills from junior Katie Vancura and freshman Russell before Bowling Green went on a run to cut the MU lead to two at 21-19. Following another Bowling Green timeout, Russell recorded her first collegiate service ace to put Marquette up 22-19 and help MU take the first set, 25-21.

The second set started off completely opposite as the first but ended in the same 25-21 victory for the Golden Eagles. MU opened scoring with a service ace by Mastandrea before two kills from Bielski put Marquette on top 6-5. Coming out of a Bowling Green timeout, with the score 10-6, Corey Domek added two kills for the Falcons to cut the lead to 11-8 before the Golden Eagles reeled off five straight points. From there MU kept the Falcons at arms length to take the set 25-21.

Coming out of the intermission, the Falcons looked like a totally different team from the first two frames, building a 7-2 lead before MU called their first timeout of the frame. After the timeout, Gonyo responded with a kill but the Golden Eagles were unable to get much else going as Bowling Green went on a 7-1 run with the score 12-16 to seal their set victory.

The Golden Eagles' woes continued into the fourth frame as they struggled to make consistent contact on their attacks. Bowling Green shot out to a 10-2 lead, forcing MU to take its first timeout of the set. From there, Marquette fought back to shave some points off the lead but really struggled to put much pressure on the Falcons before losing 25-16. In the fourth set, Marquette registered nine errors and 12 kills while Bowling Green's 12 kills came with only one error, leading to an attack percentage of .500 for the Falcons.

Marquette came out with it's back against the wall in the fifth set and looked as though they had recovered from sub-par performances in sets three and four. MU leapt out to a 7-4 lead on consecutive service aces from junior Hailey Viola before Bowling Green came back to tie the game at 11-11. After a Marquette timeout, Vancura responded with a kill to put MU up 12-11. From there the Falcons scored the next two points to put Bowling Green up 13-12, leading to another MU timeout. Following the timeout, two kills by Domek ended the match with the final set going to the Falcons, 15-13.

"We got back on track in set five but it we should have played like that in set three," said Rolf. "Overall we had a good weekend and really took a big step up in our play and confidence."

Pacing the Golden Eagles against Bowling Green were Bielski with 14 kills, Mastandrea with 46 assists and Viola with 16 digs.

Marquette returns to action next weekend at the Al McGuire Center when it hosts the Marquette Cheese Bowl. Opponents for next weekend include American, Oregon State and Wisconsin. The game against Wisconsin will be televised locally on Time Warner Cable Sports, Channel 32.