Sept. 2, 2005
Box Score
The George Mason women's volleyball team hosted the first day of the Patriot Invitational on Friday with a pair of teams surviving the first day without a loss as Cal Poly won a pair of matches and Seton Hall won its lone engagement in the two-day six-team tournament sponsored by Brion's Grille and Wingate Inn.
Cal Poly and Seton Hall will face off in Saturday's first match, with the winner in the driver's seat for the tournament title. Each will also play a second match on Saturday. Also winning matches on the first day were TCU and UMBC as each went 1-1. Loyola went 0-2 while George Mason was 0-1. Mason and Loyola will square off on Saturday at 3 p.m.
The Patriots played the nightcap on Friday, taking on the TCU Horned Frogs in front of the home crowd at John Linn Memorial Gym. But it was no treat for the roughly 200 people in attendance as Mason had a negative hitting percentage in a 30-25, 30-23, 30-25 loss. The Patriots (0-2) hit -.031 in the match while TCU hit .198, overcoming a second-game deficit and breaking open a close third game to improve to 1-2. This was the first time in more than five years that Mason has had a negative hitting percentage in a match.
Tricia Nelsen came off the bench to have two kills on four attacks with no errors. Jaqueline Kohler had nine kills and seven errors on 29 attacks and Janelle Wilson had three kills and two errors on eight attacks. Everyone else hit .000 or worse. Mason did play well defensively, however, with Kohler recording 12 digs and Zulma Rojas adding 10. Wilson had two total blocks and four service aces.
Anna Vaughn led TCU with 10 kills and seven block assists while Erin Estep had nine kills and no errors on 20 attacks. Talaya Whitfield added 15 digs. The Horned Frogs had a 9.5-7.0 edge in total team blocks.
The day's most exciting match was the five-set thriller staged by Cal Poly and UMBC. Both had won their matches earlier in the tournament and both were looking for their second win of the season. Cal Poly hit poorly in the first two games but still managed to take split the games with UMBC. The Retrievers lost a close third game and dominated in the fourth game to force a fifth set. That's where Cal Poly pulled away, opening up an 8-5 lead, and after UMBC rallied to tie, Cal Poly went up 13-10 and closed out the match. The final tally had the Mustangs on top, 30-24, 18-30, 30-28, 24-30, 15-11.
Retriever freshman Sarah Ball showed that she is one of the best players in the tournament, with 24 kills and 14 digs. Angela Anderson was nearly as good, with 19 kills and a .421 hitting percentage. Christine Skala added 20 digs and Stacey Carroll had 59 assists.
The Mustangs put themselves in the driver's seat in the tournament, but have two tough matches remaining on Saturday, facing Seton Hall at 10 a.m. and Mason at 8 p.m. Vanessa Gilliam had 23 kills and 11 digs while Kylie Atherstone had 14 kills and Kayla Mulder has 16 kills. Kristin Jackson added 15 digs.
Earlier in the day, Cal Poly started its first match strong and after a third-game hiccup, closed out a 3-1 win. The Mustangs downed TCU, 30-20, 30-23, 29-31, 30-22. Gilliam led the way for Cal Poly with 23 kills and a .360 attack percentage. She also had four service aces, eight digs and four total blocks. Mulder added 15 kills and eight digs with four service aces while Jackson had 11 digs.
The Horned Frogs were led by Anna Vaughn's 14 kills and seven total blocks while Nirelle Hampton had 35 assists and Agi Nemeth added 10 kills, four service aces, six digs and five block assists. For Cal Poly, it was the Mustangs first win of the season as they improved to 1-1. For TCU, it dropped the Horned Frogs to 0-2.
Cal Poly nearly made it a straight-set win after rallying from a 29-22 deficit to tie the match at 29-29 behind Gilliam's serve. But Hampton had a kill to put TCU ahead and a Cal Poly attack error gave the Horned Frogs their lone game.
The most dominant performance of the day came in the day's middle match, as Seton Hall defeated Loyola, 30-26, 30-17, 30-21. The Pirates hit .368 in the match, had 38 digs and seven total team blocks. They also had nine service errors to improve to 2-1 on the season.
Kristen Denboer had 10 kills and a .600 hitting percentage while Jessica King added a match-high 15 kills while hitting .478. Brittany Rahrer had 39 assists and Jessica Pompei had 13 digs. Loyola (0-3) was led by Becky Corb's 13 kills while Blair Snyder and Jamie Arndt each had six digs.
In the day's opening match, UMBC was able to hold off a Loyola rally to defeat the Greyhounds, 30-27, 30-23, 25-30, 30-16. It was UMBC's first win of the season and the Retrievers (1-2) got 19 kills and 17 digs from Ball. Ball hit .319 in the match with just four errors on 47 attacks. Katrina Carrick had 13 kills and Carroll had 54 assists, four kills, five service aces, 10 digs and four block assists. Skala added 17 digs. UMBC hit .299 as a team while Loyola hit .222.
The Greyhounds got 14 kills from Rachel Schillinger and 12 digs from Christina Greenup and the defense of Jamie Arndt kept Loyola in the match as she had 21 digs. The loss dropped Loyola to 0-2.
Action in the Brion's Grille Patriot Invitational resumes on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. when Cal Poly faces Seton hall. At 12:30 p.m., TCU takes on UMBC and at 3 p.m., Mason plays Loyola. The final two matches of the tournament pit Seton Hall vs. TCU at 5:30 p.m. and Mason vs. Cal Poly at 8 p.m.
DAY ONE RESULTS
UMBC d. Loyola - 30-27, 30-23, 25-30, 30-16
Cal Poly d. TCU - 30-20, 30-23, 29-31, 30-22
Seton Hall d. Loyola - 30-26, 30-17, 30-21
Cal Poly d. UMBC - 30-24, 18-30, 30-28, 24-30, 15-11
TCU d. George Mason - 30-25, 30-23, 30-25
DAY ONE SINGLE-GAME LEADERS
Kills - Sarah Ball, UMBC - 24 (5 games)
Attack Percentage (min. 10 TA) - Kristen Denboer, Seton Hall - .600 (3 games)
Assists - Stacey Carroll, UMBC - 59 (5 games)
Service Aces - Stacey Carroll, UMBC - 5 (4 games)
Digs - Jamie Arndt - Loyola - 21 (4 games)
Solo Blocks - Anna Vaughn, TCU - 3 (4 games)
Assist Blocks - Anna Vaughn, TCU - 7 (3 games)
Total Blocks - Anna Vaughn, TCU - 7 (twice, once in 3 games, once in 4 games)
