Sept. 11, 2010

Box Score

DENVER, Colo. - The Gonzaga University women's volleyball team put together a strong and gutsy showing against the University of Denver in its first match on the second day of the Pioneer Classic but dropped a tough 3-1 decision (22-25, 25-12, 25-27, 17-15). The Bulldogs are now 2-7 on the season and the Pioneers are 5-5.

It was a back-and-forth battle in the first set that saw 13 ties and eight lead changes. The Pioneers looked to be breaking away from the Bulldogs early, gaining an 11-7 advantage but two errors by Denver followed by back-to-back combo stuffs by junior Denise Van de Mortel and redshirt freshman Meredith Crenshaw put GU in the lead at 12-11.

The Pioneers again took over the lead, grabbing the late 20-17 edge. The Bulldogs responded though with a Schylur Edelman kill, forced DU into an attack error, and then rattled off a service ace by Edelman and a big kill by sophomore Terran Poindexter to seemingly give the Zags the momentum and lead at 21-20. The momentum was short lived as Denver strung together a 5-1 run to claim the 25-22 first set victory.

"Once again I thought we were prepared to compete well today," stated head coach Dave Gantt. "Unfortunately the ball found the players that were not tuned in like they should have been. So we talked about that between sets 1 and 2 and how we needed to steady the ship."

The Bulldogs put everything they had on the floor in the second set as a complete team effort helped them tie the match at 1-1 with a lopsided 25-12 win. Gonzaga finished the set with 12 kills and a strong .321 hitting percentage. Five different players had kills in the set for Gonzaga, including sophomore Jessie Genger who hammered home its final two, and five different players combined for five blocks on Denver. GU also held DU to just nine kills in the second set, compared to its 13 in the first, and a sub-par .030 attacking percentage.

"I certainly liked the personality of the team in the second set and how they handled their business," said Gantt. "That set was indicative of the level of play we are capable of playing and maintaining if we just trust ourselves."

The third set was one of the most intense sets of the weekend as the outcome could have gone either way. After a quick Denver spurt to open the set, it was a battle that saw 13 ties and six lead changes. The set came down to the final moments as Gonzaga starved off set point, down 24-22, to string together three-straight points, including kills by sophomore Kaprina Goodwin and Edelman, to shock the standing Denver crowd and reclaim the lead at 25-24 and serve for the win. Unfortunately, junior Laura Day, who had been superb in her serving, served the ball long on the next play. On the following serve, senior Allyson Powell mishandled the ball for the Pioneer service ace. Denver claimed the win on a kill by Lyndi Johnson.

"Down 22 to 24, I called a timeout and we responded very well," explained Gantt. "We sided out to go to 23 and then our defense scored two points. So we were on a 3-point run and up one with a chance to win the set. Unfortunately we served out long and didn't give our defense a chance to make another play. Those are the situations that we have to be aware of. In my opinion, that was the turning point in the match for Denver."

The Bulldogs were deflated after the hard-fought third set and couldn't recover as the Pioneers won the fourth set and match with a 25-17 victory. DU held the Zags to nine kills on 31 attempts in the final set while it had 18 kills on 39 total attempts.

For the match, Gonzaga was led by Genger and Edelman who finished with 10 and nine kills, respectively. Poindexter added eight kills and Goodwin had seven.

As a team, the Zags held the 13-10 advantage in blocks with Edelman collecting seven block assists and Crenshaw added five block assists. The dig edge was pretty close, with Denver finishing with 64 and Gonzaga having 61. The Bulldogs were led by Powell and Van de Mortel with 22 and 12, respectively.

Denver had four players with double-digit kills. Brea Muhle led all players with 14, while Kresson Vreeman and Alex Turgeon both had 12 and Alyssa Bonelli contributed 10.

Gonzaga returns to action at 3 p.m. PDT Saturday when it plays Texas A&M.