Sacred Heart
Columbia
Pioneers Lose Five-Game Thriller to Wagner; Porter Named to All-Tournament Team
9/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2006
FAIRFIELD, CT (September 23, 2006) - The Sacred Heart Pioneers and Wagner Seahawks closed out the 2006 SHU / Asics Invitational Saturday afternoon with an exciting five-game thriller that saw the Seahawks gut out a 19-17 win in the fifth game for the win. The Columbia Lions won this year's invitational posting a perfect 3-0 overall record while the Seahawks finished second at 2-1, both five-game wins.
With Wagner coming off a five game win over Providence in the third match of the day, the Pioneers pounced early and came away with a 30-27 win in the first game. The Seahawks got their legs back and battled to a 33-31 win in game two and a 30-26 in the third. SHU, refusing to go away easily, forced the fifth game with a 30-23 win.
Game five featured a tense back and forth battle and with the score tied at 8-8, Wagner pulled in front 11-9. But before the could run away with it, SHU came back to knot the game at 13-13. From there, the Seahawks served for match point five times before they iced the game away on back to back kills by Sarah Garrette.
The Pioneers got a career-high 20 kills from junior Tiffany Phoenix (Cresskill, NJ). Phoenix also had eight digs and three solo blocks. Junior Christine Duffy had her best match of the season to date with 19 kills and 22 digs. She also served up a pair of aces. Senior Charnette Porter (Framingham, MA) finished with 12 kills and five total blocks.
Sophomore libero Katie Thomas (Wappingers Falls, NY) had a match-high 24 digs while sophomore Lynn Principio (Ardsley, NY) finished with 15. Freshman Morgan Gross (Dumfries, VA) passed out 56 assists.
Wagner got 17 kills and 18 digs from Brandy Barnett while Trish Morris posted 15 kills and a pair of solo blocks. Garrette had 12 kills and a .333 (12-1-33) hitting percentage while Sam O'Brien had 10 kills and matched her .333 (10-4-18) percentage. Lydia Emnott passed 42 assists and collected 13 digs while serving three aces.
In their first match of the day, the Pioneers fell in three-straight to Columbia, 30-21, 30-16 and 30-28. The Pioneers got nine kills, nine assists and three digs from junior Sam McMillan (Manassas, VA). Freshman Annie Archer (Littleton, CO) finished with seven kills and four solo blocks.
Columbia got 13 kills and 13 digs from Natalie Gerling while Nikki Learned posted 10 kills. Shannon Hunzicker passed out 43 assists with eight digs. Ashley Kim finished with 10 digs.
The Pioneers, now 1-11 on the year, travel to the University of Hartford on Wednesday night for a 7 pm match with the Hawks.
Columbia 3 - Providence 0
The Lions got 13 kills from Cassie Ligh and 12 from Kelly Russell to lead the way to a 3-0 win over Providence College in the opening match on day two of the Sacred Heart University / Asics Invitational Saturday morning.
Ligh led the team hitting .400 (13-5-20) in the match while Russell was equally impressive at .304 (12-5-23). Natalie Gerling just missed a double double with 10 digs and nine kills. She along with Russell each served up five aces in the win. Amalia Viti finished with eight kills and two solo block and three block assists in the middle.
The Friars were led by Jess Storer who had six kills in 14 attempts with no errors (.429) and also managed eight digs. Jeanette Toney posted six kills along with three solo blocks and a block assist.
Wagner 3 - Providence 2
Wagner and Providence fought a back and forth battle with the Seahawks coming out on top in a five-game thriller. The two teams alternated wins with Wagner taking games one, 30-27, and three, 30-22, and Providence winning games two, 30-25, and game four, 30-24. The Seahawks jumped out to a big lead in game five, 13-4, before putting away 15-10 for the win.
The Seahawks got a match-high 23 kills from Brandy Barnett who also posted a .413 hitting percentage (23-4-46). She added 11 digs and a solo block to her stat sheet on the day. Teammate Sirena LaBurn had 16 kills and Sarah Garrette had 10 while hitting .471 (10-2-17). The setter combination of Lydia Emnott and Gabi Hilk passed out 39 and 21 assists, respectively, with Emnott coming up with a match-best 18 digs.
The Friars were led by Sarah Fleming and Aida Cadres who had 15 and 14 kills apiece. Fleming hit .419 (15-2-31) in the match while Cadres collected nine digs and three service aces. Sara Sheehan passed out 46 assists and had 14 digs. Libero Kelly Krahenbuhl finished with 17 digs.
Final Results: 1st Place - Columbia (3-0) 2nd Place - Wagner (2-1) 3rd Place - Providence (1-2) 4th Place - Sacred Heart (0-3)
Sacred Heart / Asics Invitational All-Tournament Team
#12 Natalie Gerling, Jr., Columbia
#10 Cassie Ligh, Jr., Columbia
#12 Lydia Emnott, Sr., Wagner
#16 Brandy Barnett, So., Wagner
#10 Jeanette Toney, So., Providence
#10 Charnette Porter, Sr., Sacred Heart
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
