Sept. 18, 2010
Box Score
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Junior Zoe Bowens (Long Beach, Calif.) registered a match-high 18 kills and freshman Maline Vaitai (Salt Lake City, Utah) tallied her second double-double of the season as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore women's volleyball team outlasted Kristin Dickmann Memorial Tournament host Navy, 3-2 (25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 20-25, 15-7), at Wesley A. Brown Field House Saturday.
The win moved the UMES record in the tournament to 2-1 and pushed its overall mark to 5-8. The win is also the Hawks' fourth in the all-time series against the Midshipmen and second in five-set matches. Navy fell to 4-10 in the losing efiort.
"Our team came out and played aggressive throughout the first and second sets and maintained a high hitting efficiency," said UMES head coach Don Metil. "We faltered in sets three and four slightly and rebounded with a strong fifth-set performance. Sam [Chukwura] and Kave [Lea'Aetoa] played outstanding in the middle and our block was very strong down the stretch."
Lea'Aetoa and Chukwura grabbed the Hawks' two all-tournament team honors. The freshman from Salt Lake City, Utah, finished the weekend with a .315 hitting percentage, 3.31 kills per game and 1.08 blocks per game. Chukwura, a redshirt senior Brooklyn, N.Y. native, countered with a .368 efficiency and 2.31 kills per game.
Against Navy, UMES hit .215 (67 kills, 33 errors, 158 total attacks) to the Midshipmen's .169 (43-21-130).
Down, 17-16, in the first set, Chukwura sparked a three-point run with a kill for a 19-17 lead. Navy battled back to knot the game at 20-20 before two more Hawks points forced a Midshipmen timeout at 22-20. A pair of Vaitai blocks made it 24-20 and Lea'Aetoa then finished the game off with a stuff of her own.
The Hawks took the second game after being down three in the early going. At 8-5 Navy, UMES reeled off nine of 12 points to take a three-point advantage itself and force Navy to call timeout at 14-11. Later, two consecutive aces by Vaitai extended the Hawks' margin to 19-13 and they secured the game by seven.
The Hawks led, 10-7, on a three straight points from Lea'Aetoa (two kills sandwiched by a block) but Navy responded to force a fourth game taking control, 22-21 and winning by three.
The Mids led the entire way in the fourth and by as many as five on its way to the fifth game.
UMES clinched the match with a solid fifth set. Two consecutive Vaitai aces put the Hawks ahead, 6-2 and they led, 8-3 at the changeover.
UMES cruised from there. Navy made a small run to close to within seven but Vaitai nailed it down with an emphatic kill for the victory.
Lea'Aetoa and Chukwura finshed the match with 16 and 13 kills, respectively, while Vaitai had 17 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore Stepahnie Sierra (El Paso, Texas) collected her third double-double of the year and second of the tournament with 58 assists and match-high-tying 13 digs.
UMES travels to Durham, N.C. and the NCCU Volleyball Tournament Sept. 24-25 to take on Hampton, East Tennessee State, South Carolina State and host North Carolina Central.
