Sept. 4, 2010
Box Score
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Three players had at least eight kills apiece and junior Zoe Bowens (Long Beach, Calif.) tallied 10 but host Northern Arizona captured its 11th Fiesta Bowl Volleyball Tournament title with a 3-0 defeat of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore women's volleyball team at the Rolle Activity Center Saturday.
NAU took the title with game scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-17.
The Lumberjacks improved to 4-3 as UMES dropped to 1-6.
Kobi Christiansen and Lexi Sullivan led the way with 13 and 12 kills respectively as Christiansen had a match-high .550 hitting percentage, helping NAU in outhitting UMES, .276-149.
The Hawks stayed close in the opening game, only trailing by a 15-11 margin by the midpoint of the game. A pair of blocks by freshman Kaveingna Lea'Aetoa (Salt Lake City, Utah) and sophomore Stephanie Sierra (El Paso, Texas) and freshman Maline Vaitai (Salt Lake City, Utah) moved the visitors to within five at 22-17 but NAU cruised to the win from there.
The second game saw the Hawks reel off the first three points on kills by Vaitai, Bowens and a NAU error before the Lumberjacks battled back for a 4-4 tie. UMES never led the rest of the game. At 11-all, NAU tallied three consecutive points to make it 14-11 before a service error cut it to two.
UMES got to with one at 19-18 on a kill and error to force a NAU timeout and hung with the Lumberjacks late nearly forcing extra points but NAU closed the game out, winning by two on a Sullivan kill.
UMES never led in the third game, falling behind by as many as 10 at 20-10 before mounting a run with four straight points prompting a host timeout at 20-14, but the Hawks couldn't get ant closer.
Freshman Jingqiao Li (Beijing, China) had eight digs to pace the Hawks, while Sierra tallied 24 assists.
Christiansen added 11 digs for a double-double to cap a solid all-around tournament.
Bowens was the Hawks' lone representative on the all-tournament team. She totaled 33 kills (3.3 per game) and nine digs on the weekend.
UMES travels to Kingston, R.I., to play in the Art Carmichael Invitational Sept. 9-11. The Hawks play host Rhode Island Thursday at 7 p.m., in Keaney Gymnasium.
