Sept. 25, 2010
Box Score
DURHAM, N.C. - Three players tallied eight kills as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore women's volleyball team swept South Carolina State, 3-0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-21), on the second day of the NCCU Tournament at McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium.
Redshirt senior Samantha Chukwura (Brooklyn, N.Y.), junior Zoe Bowens (Long Beach, Calif.) and freshman Maline Vaitai (Salt Lake City, Utah) each powered the UMES offense, helping the Hawks to move to 2-1 in the tournament.
UMES improves to 7-9 overall with its sixth win in eight matches while SCSU fell to 4-14 in the match that took just 62 minutes.
The Hawks held to the Lady Bulldogs to a .066 hitting percentage and hit .262 themselves. UMES had just 12 errors in 80 attacks with 33 kills. SCSU had 14 errors and 18 kills on 61 attacks.
UMES jumped out to a 5-1 lead, forcing an SCSU timeout. A Bowens ace followed by a freshman Kaveingna Lea'Aetoa (Salt Lake City, Utah) kill later pushed the score to 8-4. The Lady Bulldogs took another timeout at 13-8 to try to stop the momentum, but the UMES kept rolling.
Vaitai registered a kill for a 16-10 advantage and UMES allowed just six more points the rest of the way on take the game by 11 on another Vaitai kill.
Tied, 3-3, in the second game, UMES rattled off three straight points on a pair of Chukwura kills bookending a SCSU error to force a Lady Bulldogs' timeout. The Hawks then scored six of the next eight for a seven-point advantage. Sophomore Stephanie Sierra (El Paso, Texas) ended that stretch with one of her four service aces for a 12-5 lead.
The Hawks lengthened the margin to 16-5 and 22-10, respectively, before taking the game by 13.
UMES started the third game with seven of the first 11 points but SCSU battled back to take an 11-10 lead. Seven straight points rested control away from the Lady Bulldogs and UMES closed with a Vaitai kill for the win.
Bowens tied for the match high with 10 digs and Sierra recorded a match-best 23 assists.
SCSU got seven kills from Jarne Gleaton and 15 assists from Shabree Roberson.
UMES faces N.C. Central in the final match of the tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday.
