Sept. 18, 2010

Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University women's volleyball team showed its fight and determination Saturday morning, battling back from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth set with Seattle University. The Bulldogs momentum didn't carry over to the fifth set though as the Redhawks won the deciding set 15-7. GU, playing its second match of the Zags Volleyball Classic at Martin Centre, fell 18-25, 12-25, 25-12, 25-20, 7-15 and now stand 2-12 on the year. Seattle U improved to 2-0 in the tournament and is now 6-7 overall.

It wasn't a pretty first two sets for Gonzaga as it combined for 17 kills and had 15 errors on 64 total attempts. Seattle had 31 kills combined in the first two sets with seven errors on 79 attempts. The Redhawks best set of the two was the second as they finished with 16 kills and no errors on 33 attempts for an impressive .485 attacking clip.

The 10-minute intermission between sets two and three gave the Bulldogs time to regroup. Regroup they did as they rolled the Redhawks by the same score they had beaten them by in the second set. In this set, Gonzaga finished with 14 kills and three errors on 27 attempts for the stellar .407 hitting clip and held Seattle to eight kills and forced eight errors on 32 attempts. A big difference was Zag Kristina Lavrisha who switched to libero and dug four of 13 balls and senior Caitlin Cozad who had five of the 14 GU kills, after having four total in the first two sets.

Gonzaga continued to roll in the fourth set, not letting the momentum fad. It ran out to a six-point advantage and earned the five-point victory on back-to-back kills by redshirt freshman Meredith Crenshaw and junior setter Denise Van de Mortel. The Zags had 15 kills in the set, with two errors for a .325 hitting percentage. The Redhawks had the same amount of kills as GU but were again sloppy on their attacks, finishing with seven errors for a .186 attacking clip.

The fifth set started off strange as Gonzaga earned a point but the set was started over as the officials determined that the wrong team has served first. Unfortunately for the Zags, the Redhawks then rattled off three-straight points to knock GU on its heels. The Bulldogs could not get within reach of Seattle U after that and the Redhawks ran away with the eight-point victory.

Gonzaga was led by Cozad with 12 kills. Both junior Kaprina Goodwin and senior Schylur Edelman added seven apiece. Senior Allyson Powell finished with a match-high 20 digs, while junior Laura Day added 14 and Lavrisha chipped in 10.

Seattle had three players finish in double-digits with Sarah Jaeckel leading the way with a match-high 19. Jaeckel added 13 digs to be one of two players register double-doubles. Cristine Richards was the other, finishing with 17 kills and 18 digs.

Gonzaga's final match of the Zag Volleyball Classic is tonight at 7 p.m. as it plays the University of Idaho.

Notes: In the first match today, Wyoming defeated Idaho 3-0. Wyoming is now also 2-0 in the tournament and Idaho is 0-2.