Aug. 28, 2010

Box Score

GRAND FOLKS, N.D. - The Gonzaga University women's volleyball team rebounded from a tough first day at the North Dakota Classic to earn a sweep over San Jose State University Saturday morning. The Bulldogs, who earned their first win of the season and are now 1-2 on the year, defeated the Spartans (0-2) 25-18, 26-24, 26-24.

"It is nice to get this one under our belts," said head coach Dave Gantt moments after the victory. "Give our players credit, they put themselves in the right situations, even when physically tired, and got the victory. They just played the key points really tough in the crucial second and third sets. It wasn't absolutely pretty volleyball but we gutted it out. It is very encouraging the way we are coming together."

The Zags, who have now played three matches in less than 24 hours, used top notch defense to claim the victory. Three players finished with double-digits digs, including freshman Kristina Lavrisha, who is making a name for herself pretty quickly. Lavrisha tallied double-figure digs in both contests on Friday and finished with a team-high 20 against San Jose State. Also keeping the ball alive for Gonzaga was senior captain Allyson Powell who had 19 and junior Laura Day who added 10.

"Ally and Kristina put on their defensive hard hats today and were digging a lot of balls and a lot during key times."

One of those crucial times came in the third set with the Spartans just one point away from victory with the 24-23 lead.

"After a time out by me, we set up a play for Terran [Poindexter], one we hadn't run often," said Gantt. "The players kept calm and after a huge dig by Kristina, Terran tied the set. Kristina and Ally both came up big in the final three plays to help win that set and match."

After Poindexter tied the set at 24-24 the momentum swung back to Gonzaga. She gave the Zags the lead with another kill off a perfectly placed set by junior Denise Van de Mortel. Then Hanah Blume, of SJSU, miss hit a ball to give the Bulldogs the 3-0 sweep.

"Our defense is ahead of the offense right now, which we anticipated it would be," explained Gantt.

Gonzaga finished the match with 35 total kills and a .124 attacking percentage. Lavrisha also led the way offensively with eight kills, one error, on 22 total attacks for a team-best .318 hitting clip. Poindexter and senior Caitlin Cozad added seven kills apiece.

San Jose State closed out the match with seven more kills than the Zags at 42, but had 26 hitting errors on 144 attempts for a .111 attacking percentage. Alex Akana and Sarah McAtee finished with 10 and nine kills, respectively, for the Spartans. SJSU out-dug GU 75-69, with Courtney Sellmer collecting a match-high 35, and held the blocking advantage 10-4.

The Bulldogs will now look to climb back up to .500 when they face Cal State Bakersfield in their final match of the tournament. Match time is set for 3 p.m. PDT today.