Purdue Fort Wayne
Oral Roberts
Mastodons Fall at Oral Roberts 3-1
9/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 25, 2009
Tulsa, OK - Despite a season-high 21 kills from senior Rebekah Roehm, the IPFW Mastodons fell to the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts 3-1 on Friday evening by scores of 25-23, 33-35, 25-19, 25-18.
Roehm's 21 kills were a match-high, as Stephanie Lamberti continued her hot streak with 13 kills. Shannon Reuter dished out 44 assists to lead the team, with four players reaching double figures in digs, led by Jamie Schwartz' 22, her seventh straight match with double figure digs. Reuter and Roehm totaled 18 and 17 digs, each, totaling their sixth and seventh of the season, respectively. Taryn Parker, who had a season-high nine kills and no attack errors, also had three total blocks, tied for most in the match.
Oral Roberts (6-6, 2-2 Summit League) opened the match quickly, scoring the first two points, before the Mastodons responded by scoring the next three points, the last two of those coming on Roehm kills from Reuter assists. The Golden Eagles wasted little time in creating a run of their own, as the hosts rattled off seven consecutive points, to take a six point lead that they would relinquish for the remainder of the set.
IPFW (7-7, 2-3 Summit League) would claw their way back, using a series of 3-0 runs to pull to within two at 20-18. Trailing by four at 22-18, IPFW would put together a 5-1 run to close to within one at 23-22, and trailed by just one at 24-23; however, the early margin would be too great to overcome in the 25-23 Oral Roberts first-set win.
The marathon second set had a little bit of everything in it; a tight-fought match, and large runs by both squads. Over the first 19 total points in the frame, the largest lead gained by either team was two points, but with ORU leading by one at 10-9, the hosts scored four straight points to storm ahead by five at 14-9.
The `Dons needed little time to rebound, as the visitors ran runs of 4-0 and 2-0 to once again close the gap to the slimmest of margins. The Golden Eagles used a late 2-0 run to seemingly take the momentum, leading 21-18, until the feisty IPFW team scored four straight points to take their first lead of the match at 22-21. From that point on it was entirely back-and-forth, as neither team could put the other away, as the `Dons fought off seven set-point attempts by ORU, and used a late 2-0 run to serve for a set point of their own, as they capped the set on an Elizabeth McVicker attack error, giving the Mastodons their largest point total of the season at 35-33.
After the break between the second and third set, Oral Roberts used an early run in the third set, taking a 2-2 tie to a 5-2 ORU advantage, which they would not give up over the remainder of the set, taking the third by a 25-19 score.
Oral Roberts made quick work of the fourth and eventual final set of the match, jumping ahead 5-1 out of the gate, and then used runs of 4-0, 5-0, and 3-0 to push ahead by 12 at 17-5. The Mastodons showed a lot of fight late, running off runs of three, two, and three straight points, climbing to as close as six, but the early deficit was too much to overcome, as the Golden Eagles evened their conference record this season with the 25-18 fourth-set win.
McVicker and Joana Gruber each had 16 kills for Oral Roberts, with Juliana Vieira dishing out a match-high 60 assists. Cassidy Holmes had 29 digs, with Serena Cate picking up a double-double with 14 kills and 23 digs.
The Mastodons return to action tomorrow night, as the squad travels from Tulsa to Shreveport, Louisiana, where they will take on the Ladies of Centenary, with first-serve slated for 8:00 PM EST.
~Dons~
