Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Iowa State
Racers battle Iowa State to five games, fall 3-2 in first match of BGSU Invite
9/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State women's volleyball team again took a highly-touted team to the brink of victory only to be frustrated with a 3-2 loss, this time at the hands of Iowa State, 30-24, 23-30, 30-27, 28-30, 15-11. The match was MSU's first in the Bowling Green State Invitational, held at Bowling Green, Ohio.
Despite trailing two games to one going into Game 4, the Racers (0-4) used an offensive surge to forge ahead. Murray State went on a 6-0 run early in the game to start a 14-3 run, giving MSU a 23-15 lead. The Racers were able to stave off a late run by the Cyclones (6-2) for the 30-28 win.
In the deciding game, Iowa State went on a 9-3 run, turning a 5-3 MSU lead into a 12-8 ISU lead en route to the win.
Prior to the match, sophomore setter Nikki Wong, last year's Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, suffered an ankle injury. She did not start the match, but came in during Game 1. Her ankle was checked after the match, and MSU head coach David Schwepker will make a match-time decision.
"When Nikki went down, everybody came back and got ready for the match, but the started a little tentative," Schwepker said. "We were able to get her back in, and the team played tough. We served a little easy, and still made a few too many serving errors, but we will work on that."
Murray State was led on offense by sophomore middle blocker Abbi Gui, who had a co-match-high 22 kills and 11 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Paige Sun had 19 kills and 19 digs for the Racers, while freshman outside hitter Lilli Zhan had 16 kills and a match-high 21 digs and junior outside hitter Kimberly Bunnage had 13 kills and 13 digs.
Wong handed out a match-high 54 assists for MSU.
Murray State will face tournament host Bowling Green State today at 5 p.m. CT The Racers will close out its tournament stay with a match against West Virginia tomorrow (Saturday) at 11:30 a.m. CT.
