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Life > Athletics > Volleyball > 09/19/06
VOLLEYBALL STAYS UNDEFEATED AT HOME WITH 3-0 SWEEP
DENTON, Texas (Sept. 19) – It took nearly a game to get warmed up, but Texas Woman’s University volleyball found its rhythm to defeat the University of Texas at Tyler tonight in a three-game sweep, 30-25, 30-7, 30-23. The victory improves the Pioneers’ record to 12-5 overall and 4-0 at home.
“I think that we tried different things tonight coming off of this past weekend,” Head coach Shelly Barberee said. “We ran a 6-2 and we’ve been running a 5-1 so we had two setters on the court with Jessica (Crow) and Jill (Arnold). We had some hitters step up. Nicole (Everett) and Madlyn (Craven) both played well and we tried a different defense as well. We tried some different things. Some of them worked and some of them didn’t so we’ll go over the game film and make some changes.”
TWU played catch up for most of game one as UT-Tyler (2-7) built leads of 6-12 and 13-19. The Pioneers finally drew even at 23 when senior Robin Hawkins got a kill and then TWU took the lead for the first time, 24-23, on a Patriot hitting error. A TWU serving error tied the game again at 24 but kills from Craven, Hawkins and Kandis Schroeder helped TWU pull away. They finished with another Hawkins kill and tip from Crow to win, 30-25.
“This team always takes a while to warm up,” Barberee said. “We were hitting well – we hit .382 in the first game – but we were putting points up on their board and hitting numerous errors as well.”
The second game was all TWU as they hit at a clip of .450 to dominate at 30-7.
The final frame saw the Patriots start off with two straight points but the Pioneers answered with six consecutive points and never gave up the lead. The closest UTT got was within one at 15-14. A combination of UTT errors and a successful TWU attack put the Pioneers on top, 30-23, and kept their unbeaten home record intact. The Pioneers have not dropped a game at home this season.
TWU’s hitting percentage for the match was .361, its third best this season. Nicole Everett led the Pioneers with 13 kills followed by nine from Schroeder and seven from Craven. Crow recorded 24 assists and Arnold added 12. TWU’s serving game is showing a little life again after disappearing the last two matches. The team had a total of seven aces – three from Arnold – but there were also six serving errors. The Pioneers made their presence known at the net with 11 block assists as well.
“I saw a little bit of improvement on the block. We worked on this on Monday,” Barberee added. “Still, the pace of our game is not where I want it to be. But this was a good game though, a good win to get ready for these upcoming games in conference.”
TWU hosts back-to-back Lone Star Conference North Division contests starting with Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday and then Southeastern Oklahoma State on Saturday. Both matches are slated for 7 p.m.
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