Sept. 13, 2008
Box Score
Buffalo, N.Y. - This weekend has been tough on the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Women's Volleyball team. Coming off of two tough losses yesterday, the Lady Hawks needed a win to close out the tournament. In two stunning sets, UMES got the win they needed, defeating the University of Maine Black Bears 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 26-24).
"We've had a chance to be 3-0 each of the past three weekends," said Head Coach Don Metil. "Even though we've faced tough competition outside of our conference, we still haven't played as well as we are capable of. We might for a set or two, but rarely have put three good ones together."
In the first set, UMES jumped out early. They got back-to-back kills from Christine Edwards (Lakewood, Calif./St. Jospeh HS) and Samantha Chukwura (Brooklyn, NY/Bayside HS) to go up 5-4 and then never relinquished the lead.
During the course of the second and third sets, the score was tied a total of 26 times with 13 lead changes.
A kill from Christina EstebanÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ'ââ'¬Â '© (El Paso, Texas/Midland College) put the Lady Hawks up 23-22 in the second set. Maine called a timeout and successfully iced Edwards who then served the ball out long tying the set back up at 23 all. Laura Goettsch put Maine on set point (24-23) but then a clutch kill from Whitney Johnson (Prince Frederick, Md./Univ. at Albany) tied the game at 24. Maine then went back to Goettsch for the kill but she sent the ball deep, recording an attack error and giving UMES the point and the lead, 25-24. Having to win by two, UMES served it up for the win as Goettsch was then aced by Samantha Pimental (Corvallis, Ore./Corvallis HS) to end the set.
Set three was tied five times in the final six points. After a timeout with the score tied 23 all, UMES went on a 3-1 run to end the match and improve their record to 4-5.
"We still are making a great deal of errors at this time," said Metil. "But it was nice to see that we can still pull out a win with that amount of errors and stay disciplined and focused throughout the match."
Edwards had a match-high 13 kills, hitting a much improved .379 on only two errors. EstebanÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ'ââ'¬Â '© posted her second double-double of the tournament with 27 assists and 14 digs. Caylin Woodward (Garden Grove, Calif./Pacifica HS) led the Lady Hawks in digs (15) and attack percentage (.462).
Leading the Black Bears were Amy Lawson, who finished with a team-high 11 kills, and Goettsch who netted her own double-double with 10 kills and 13 digs. Wolfenden also had a double-double with a game-high 32 assists and 10 digs. Lindsay Allman tied Woodward for the game-high 15 digs. The Black Bears now sport an identical 4-5 record.
Butler won the tournament with a perfect 3-0 record while UMES, Maine and Buffalo all sported 1-2 marks. The Hawks officially took second place as winning percentage by total sets determined the finish. UMES was 6-6 overall, taking two sets from Butler for a .500 percentage. Buffalo was 5-7 (.417) and Maine 3-7 (.300).
UMES now heads to Norfolk, Va. on Tuesday, September 16 to take on MEAC rival Norfolk State University in a non-conference match. That is slated to start at 7:00 p.m. They will be in action on the weekend when they head to Williamsburg, Va. to face off in the Colonial Challenge, another tough tournament featuring the host Tribe of William & Mary as well as Elon and Radford.
