Purdue Fort Wayne
9-19, 7-11Summit
Southern Utah
18-11, 11-7Summit
Mastodons Sweep Thunderbirds on Senior Night
11/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 14, 2009
Fort Wayne, IN - The IPFW Mastodons capped the regular season portion of their 2009 schedule in grand fashion, sweeping the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah University (25-14, 25-23, 25-18) to secure at worst a third seed in the upcoming Summit League tournament, in Fargo, North Dakota.
"This game was really important," said IPFW women's volleyball coach Kelley Hartley Hutton. "We played well, and took care of the ball. We were able to get some confidence back, and head out to North Dakota with a `W'. It was especially important on senior night, with all of the family and friends at the match."
Leading the way for the `Dons was senior middle hitter Rebekah Roehm who had a match-high 11 kills, while Maya Schlindwein added nine. Another senior, Shannon Reuter, led the team in assists with 20, as freshman Megan Steenhuysen dished out 11 in the winning effort.
Roehm and Schlindwein tied for tops in the match in digs, each missing double figures by one with nine, as senior Jamie Schwartz and Steenhuysen had five apiece. Taryn Parker led the team with five blocks in the win. Each of the three seniors had at least one service ace in the win, as Schlindwein led the way with three.
"The three seniors have won a heck of a lot of matches," said Hartley Hutton. "Not only that, but they helped us to the conference tournament in our first three years in the league. All three of them, if you walk into practice on any given day; those are the three that day-in and day-out are really working hard and competing. They set a really good example for our freshman class, which is very important."
The Mastodons never trailed in the opening set, jumping ahead 4-2 and never looked back. The Thunderbirds closed the gap to two at 15-13, before IPFW capped the set on a 10-1 run, ending the set on back-to-back Reuter service aces, giving the `Dons the 25-14 first-set win.
Southern Utah jumped ahead early in the second set, before IPFW seemed to put the set on cruise control, leading by nine at 20-11. The visiting Thunderbirds would not go down without a fight, scoring nine straight points to tie the score at 20 apiece. IPFW followed with two straight points on a service error that ended the run and a Tessa McGill service ace, as SUU was unable to tie the score again, with a Schlindwein kill closing the door on the late Thunderbird comeback.
The Thunderbirds seemed to take control of the third set, leading 14-12, before IPFW used a methodical stretch of small runs to out-score the visitors 13-4 the rest of the way and secured the school's eighth straight victory on senior night, and sending the Mastodons to the conference tournament with some momentum behind them.
"IUPUI is a really good team, and they took it to us a week ago," noted the head coach. "We need a couple of good practices under our belt before we leave for Fargo on Wednesday. We didn't practice well last week, so on Monday when we get back into the gym, we have to get after it and start preparing for IUPUI."
The Mastodons were able to hold Summit League leading attacker Analaine Pelaez to just seven kills, her second lowest output of the season, as Jasmine Ma'afala also had seven kills in the losing effort. Brittney Clark dished out a match-high 22 assists as Courtney Lelepali had eight digs, with Megan Clyde having a hand in three blocks, best on the team.
IPFW will face off against the Jaguars of IUPUI in the opening round of the Summit League tournament, hosted by North Dakota State University. The first game is slated for Friday, November 20.
~Dons~
