Volleyball Records Third Straight Shutout
Sept. 8, 2007
CORAL GABLES, Fla.-For the third straight match, the Miami volleyball team shutout their opponent as the Hurricanes swept Brown, 3-0, in the afternoon session of the Hurricane Invitational Saturday at the Knight Sports Complex.
Katie Gallagher had one of her best matches of the season, recording five kills on eight attempts in addition to her 35 assists, five aces, six digs and two total blocks. Ashley Woods was the lone player in the match to reach double-figure kills with 11 on 16 attempts while Ciara Michel chipped in with eight of her own.
“The biggest thing that stands out to me is that Woods hit exceptionally well today and that really helped us win the match,” head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said.
The Hurricanes (5-3) had a solid afternoon at the net, recording double-digit team blocks for the second time this weekend with 11. Michel had three solo blocks and three block assists, Arielle Cooke finished with four block assists and Woods added four total blocks.
“I’m pleased by the way our blocking continues to improve,” Lantagne Welch said. “Ciara made a nice change in the match and really came up with some nice blocks and her hitting also got progressively better as it went on.”
Cassie Loessberg (17) and Bridget Bomhack (11) combined on 28 of UM’s 55 digs while Katie Lapinski was the lone Bear to record double-digit digs with 24.
Megan Toman and Lyndse Yess led the Brown offense with nine and seven kills respectively.
Miami took the early 1-0 lead with a comfortable 30-15 win behind five kills from Woods on six attempts and three kills apiece from Gallagher and Genny Mayhew. Gallagher sparked a few scoring runs while serving, recording all five of her aces in the game.
The teams were notched at 13 before a four-point run by Brown (0-2) put the Bears up 17-13. Miami then went on an 11-3 run to take a 24-20 lead with most of the points coming with Mayhew behind the line for UM. The Bears scored the next two points before the `Canes regained control, eventually prevailing, 30-23, in game two.
Miami got off to a slow start in game three, falling behind 8-4 early on before taking eight of the next 11 points to go up by one at 12-11. After the two teams battled back in forth for the next several points, UM took control again to go up 21-14 before eventually completing the sweep, 30-23.
The Hurricanes will take a short break before returning to the court to take on Delaware in the tournament finale at 7:30 p.m. Brown will turn around and face Loyola prior to UM’s match with the start time of that contest set for 5 p.m.
Delaware 3, Loyola 0
Behind 14 kills from Colleen Walsh, Delaware picked up a 3-0 win over Loyola in Saturday’s first contest at the Hurricane Invitational. The Blue Hens recorded 15 aces as a team with Walsh, Michelle LaLonde and Greta Gibboney each tallying four while the Ramblers recorded just two on the morning.
In addition to Walsh’s 14 kills, the Blue Hens also got eight apiece from LaLonde and Katie Dennehy while Stephanie Berry led the defense with 24 digs.
For Loyola (2-6), Sarah Singer led the way with 13 of her team’s 42 kills and Alyse Serritella led the LUC defense with 21 digs.
Megan Welch was a force at the net for the Blue Hens, recording two solo blocks and seven block assists while also recording 31 assists. Lauren Ditscheit tallied 29 assists for the Ramblers while Mindy Rees added seven.
Down 28-24 in game one, Delaware (10-0) rallied to win six of the final seven points to take the early 1-0 lead. The Blue Hens carried their momentum into the second game going up 6-1 and never looked back, winning the game 30-19. With UD up 20-19 in game three, the Blue Hens won the next seven points to go up 27-20 before eventually coming away with the 30-24 win.
