Aug. 25, 2012

UMES @ St. Francis Box Score | UMES vs. Radford Box Score

NEW YORK - UMES came to the Big Apple and conquered all comers, defeating St. Francis and Radford each in four sets on Saturday to win the SFC Terrier Invitational at the Genovesi Center. The Hawks move to 3-0, while the Terriers fell to 0-3 and the Highlanders go to 2-1.

This is the first away non-conference invitational that UMES was won outright since the Hawks won the Runnin' Bulldog Classic in 2009.

The Hawks first played in the morning against tournament host St. Francis. After each side traded a pair of points, UMES went on a 4-0 run on a Kaveinga Lea'Aetoa (Salt Lake City, Utah) kill and ace and a pair of blocks by Ndidi Ibe (North Richland Hills, Texas) and Victoria Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.) to take a 6-2 lead. St. Francis pulled to within one after winning four of five points, but UMES did the same right after, led by a block and kill by Saitaua Iosia (Long Beach, Calif.). After the Terriers got to within two 12-10, UMES won 11 of the next 15 points, capped by a 4-0 run with an Ibe ace and Iosia kill. A pair of Lea'Aetoa kills finished the Terriers 25-16 in set one.

An early 3-0 run capped by an Iosia ace put UMES up 5-3 in the second set. At 6-5 Hawks, the visitors scored four in a row off kills by Ibe, Maline Vaitai (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Jessie Vicic (Cambridge, Ontario, Canada). Iosia contributed to all three points of a later 3-0 run with a pair of kills and a block, giving UMES a 14-7 lead. The Terriers got closer by winning four of five points, including a pair of Maggie Niu kills and an ace and assist by Marina Georgieva, but at 16-12, the Hawks put St.Francis away with a 6-0 run with a kill and ace from Lea'Aetoa and two Vaitai kills, securing an eventual 25-14 second game win.

St. Francis used an early 5-0 run to build a 9-4 lead in set three. Started by Elli Steiner's (Hallwang, Austria) first assist as a Hawk, UMES won six of the next nine points, including Vaitai earning a kill, ace and block, to pull within two. The Terriers rebuilt their lead by winning four of five points with a pair of aces, and later, three straight kills by Jillian Tracy gave St. Francis a 20-13 advantage. UMES had a late 3-0 run, but three straight points by St. Francis gave the home team the set 25-19.

The fourth game went back-and-forth to start, and despite a 3-0 run by UMES, no team led by more than two at any point after the first 28 points. The Hawks notched four kills in a row, two from Iosia, to take a 17-13 lead in the set. After a Saleesha Matthews kill, the Hawks won three straight points to go up 19-14. St. Francis got to within three at 20-17, but the Maroon and Gray sealed it by taking five of the last six points, among them a pair of Iosia kills, to win 25-18 and take the match in four sets.

UMES stayed on the floor to take on Radford, which also came into the match at 2-0, setting up a championship match for the invitational. It also featured two reigning conference coaches of the year. Don Metil was the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year last season, while Marci Jenkins was the Big South Coach of the Year in 2011.

The Highlanders started the first set by taking four of the first five points, countered by a UMES 3-0 run. Radford retook the lead next point, but UMES took five of the next six points off three Highlander attack errors for a 9-6 UMES lead. At 10-9 UMES, the Hawks took control with a 4-0 run as part of winning six of the next seven, spurred on by a trio of kills by Ibe to go up 16-10. UMES hit .552, with 17 kills and just one hitting error, in the set as it never trailed by more than five again in the game, taking the set 25-16.

Radford again began the set with a 4-1 start, and again, UMES gained the lead with a run, this time 4-0, featuring a kill and block by Iosia. The Hawks had another 3-0 run quickly after, capped by a Lea'Aetoa kill and block, to go up 9-7. But the Highlanders scored six times in a row, led by two Cheyanne James kills, to surge ahead 13-9. UMES tired to keep close, and at 22-18 Radford, the Hawks took three in a row capped by two kills by Ibe, forcing a Radford timeout. But two more James kills assisted the Highlanders on a 3-0 run to take the set 25-21 and even the match.

UMES got the early jump in game three, aided by a pair of Iosia kills, with a 3-1 lead. Starting with an Emily Hayes kill then block, Radford struck back with five straight points to go ahead 6-3. Play went back-and-forth until at 9-6 Radford, UMES put together four straight points, two kills and a block from Ibe and an ace by Megan Mueller (Manchester, Mo.), to pull ahead 10-9. After their opponent tied the game, an assist and kill from Vicic started a 3-0 run. The Hawks kept in front by a couple of points when at 18-16, the Maroon and Gray sealed the game with a 3-0 run, capped by another Mueller ace, eventually winning 25-20 and taking a 2-1 set lead in the match.

Shortly into set four, a 5-0 Radford run gave the Highlanders an early 8-4 lead. UMES came back yet again from the early deficit, taking the lead after grabbing six of the next seven points to go up 11-10. Then later at 13-12 Radford, the Hawks used three Iosia kills and two Vicic aces to power a 7-0 run against their opponent, building a 19-13 advantage. A late 3-0 run with two Lea'Aetoa blocks gave UMES a seven-point lead at 22-15 en route to a 25-18 victory for UMES and invitational championship with a four-set win over Radford.

Iosia led the Hawks with 43 combined kills and 33 digs, earning double doubles in each match with 19 kills and 16 digs in the morning and 24 kills with 17 digs in the afternoon. Ibe hit .500 with 19 kills and just two attack errors, adding eight blocks. Lea'Aetoa hit .432 on the day, combining for 18 kills, five aces and eight blocks. Vaitai had 16 kills against St. Francis, totaling 23 on the day with 12 digs. Vicic tallied 93 assists and 17 digs.

Leading St. Francis in kills against UMES was a tie between Ali Long and Marina Georgieva with eight each, with the former adding nine digs. Maggie Niu had seven kills, while Slavica Stefanovic had five kills and six digs.

For the Highlanders today, Rachel Wiechecki led the team with a double double of 15 kills and 16 digs. James also achieved that feat with 12 kills and 10 digs. Hayes finished with eight kills and two blocks.

UMES will head to Savannah, Georgia next weekend to compete in the Tiger Invitational, starting with Southern Utah on Friday, August 31st at 1 p.m.