Aug. 28, 2010
Wofford Box Score | Hampton Box Score
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore women's volleyball team split two matches Saturday, dropping a 3-2 decision to Wofford to start the day and beating host Hampton, 3-0, on Day 2 of the Tiny Laster Memorial Tournament at Holland Hall.
UMES (1-3) dispatched the Lady Pirates by scores of 25-22, 25-16 and 25-14, in just 63 minutes to claim its first win of the season after three consecutive five-set losses to start the season, the last of which came by an 18-25, 25-15, 25-23, 23-25 and 13-15 tally to the Terriers in a morning match.
In the Hampton match, the freshman duo of Maline Vaitai (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Kaveingna Lea'Aetoa (Salt Lake City, Utah) registered 11 and 10 kills, respectively to power the Hawks' offense which hit .211. UMES held Hampton to .042 from the floor.
UMES had just 17 errors while HU managed 21. The Hawks took their biggest lead of the opening game at 12-6 on a Petra Parros ball handling error but the Pirates battled back to knot the game at 20-all heading into an HU timeout.
UMES called a timeout of its own at game point and then took the game on another Hampton error.
With the second game tied at 11-11, UMES ran off the final 14 of 19 points to take a two-game lead in the match. Vaitai tallied three kills in the decisive stretch as UMES was also aided by six errors.
UMES led nearly the entire way in the third game and cruised to the victory.
Sophomore Stephanie Sierra (El Paso, Texas) had 23 assists and nine digs in the win.
Sheileen Pagan had eight kills for Hampton.
Against Wofford, junior Zoe Bowens (Long Beach, Calif.) recorded 22 kills and Lea'Aetoa added 13 but UMES dropped its third straight five-set match to start the season. UMES played just two five-set matches in 2009, going 1-1. With the win Wofford improved to 2-1 on the season.
The Hawks dropped the first game by a seven-point margin before taking the second and third games by 10 and two points, respectively. Wofford rallied for 25-23 and 15-13 wins in the final two games to take the match.
Vaitai also chipped in with 11 kills while sophomore Chang Liu (Beijing, China) had six kills in 10 attacks to supplement Bowens' career match for the second consecutive day.
The Hawks never trailed in the second game to even the match, 1-1. Leading, 7-4, UMES went on an 8-5 run to open a 15-9 advantage. Two kills each by Lea'Aetoa and Vaitai highlighted the stretch. Bowens nailed it down with an ace and kill back-to-back to make it 23-14 and a pair of Wofford errors closed the game.
The third game featured 11 ties and six lead changes. UMES prevailed, erasing a 21-17 deficit winning six of eight points prior to a Terriers' timeout at 23-23. Lea'Aetoa and junior Rebecca Prado (Annandale, N.J.) blocked the next Wofford attack to get to game point then Lea'Aetoa and Bowens did the same to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Hawks hung tough the rest of the way but Wofford, who UMES topped twice last season in straight sets, rebounded to take the fourth and fifth games by a combined four points.
Wofford had three players with double-digit kills. Amanda Ligouri led the team with 14, Catelyn Amende had 13 and Mellissa Kearse tallied 12.
Vaitai paced the Hawks defensively with six digs. Lea'Aetoa had five block assists and one solo.
UMES is back in action Sept. 3-4 at the Fiesta Bowl Classic, hosted by Northern Arizona. The Hawks take on Rider, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and NAU in the two-day event.
