Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Racers win eighth straight matchwith 3-0 shutout at Eastern Kentucky
9/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State women's volleyball team claimed its eighth straight win of the season with a 3-0 blanking at Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Kentucky, 30-27, 30-27, 30-25.
The win marked the third straight conference shutout of the season for the Racers (8-4, 3-0 OVC) and the fourth straight league regular-season shutout, dating to the end of last season.
In Game 1, Eastern Kentucky (10-6, 1-1 OVC) took a 21-16 lead before the Racers fought back, going on a 13-4 run before winning the game 30-27. Sophomore setter Nikki Wong led the MSU attack with five kills in the game.
In Game 2,. EKU scored the first three points before Murray State countered by scoring the next five. The Racers later went on a 7-2 run to push out to a 13-7 lead, but the Colonels came back with a 14-9 run of its own to narrow the gap to 22-21. MSU scored the next three points to push out to 25-21, but EKU replied with the next three points to cut the lead to 25-24. The teams exchanged points three times, and Murray State claimed the game on back-to-back points, 30-27. Sophomore outside hitter Paige Sun led the MSU offense with eight kills in the game.
In Game 3, Murray State opened with a 5-2 lead, scoring five straight points after EKU scored the first two, but the Colonels kept things close, pulling to within 9-8 and 11-10. The Racers notched the next six points to vault to a 17-10 lead, then fended off a late Colonel rally to clinch the match with a 30-25 win in Game 3. Sun had nine kills in Game 3, when the Racers had an attack percentage of .595 with only one error.
"Eastern Kentucky was just relentless," said MSU head coach David Schwepker. "They went after everything and kept going throught the whole match. I'm glad we were able to pull this one out.
"(EKU) did a lot of different things that we may not have been ready for. They took every opportunity and looked for holes in our defense and kept us off-balance. I think Eastern is going to do well in conference."
Murray State was led by Sun, who notched her 10th double-double with a match-high 21 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Abbi Gui added 14 kills, while freshman outside hitter Lilli Zhan had 11. Junior defensive specialist Casandra Ersel had a match-high 20 digs, while junior outside hitter Kimberly Bunnage had 10. Wong handed out a match-high 40 assists for MSU.
Eastern Kentucky was paced by 14 kills from Liz Guard and 12 from Jessica Sabath. Kristi Kuzma had 15 digs, while Sabath had 10, and Kasha Brozek had a match-high three blocks.
Murray State returns home to take on OVC newcomers Samford (Friday, 7 p.m.) and Jacksonville State (Saturday, noon) in Racer Arena.
