Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Volleyball Falls at Eastern Kentucky
10/27/2006 5:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State women's volleyball team took a 3-1 loss at Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Kentucky tonight, scoring the first back-to-back losses of the season. Game scores were 30-21, 22-30, 30-19, 30-28. The Racers find themselves in a three-way tie for second in the OVC standings at 8-3 with Tennessee State and tomorrow's opponent, Morehead State.
In Game 1, Murray State (16-5, 8-3 OVC) got out to a 6-4 lead, but Eastern Kentucky (13-12, 6-5 OVC) tied it at 6-6, then pushed out to a 13-8 lead. A kill by senior middle blocker Holly Jansen and a block by senior Katie Kemezys and junior Tara DeMage cut the EKU lead to 13-10, but the Colonels surged ahead to an 18-12 lead. Back-to-back kills by sophomore Alyssa Groves started the Racers on a 6-1 run, cutting the Eastern Kentucky lead to 19-18, but the Colonels scored four straight points to push out to a 23-18 advantage. MSU scored two points to trim that lead to 23-20, but EKU scored seven of the last eight points to win Game 1 30-21.
In Game 2, a pair of kills by Kemezys gave Murray State an 8-6 lead, but Eastern Kentucky was able to tie it at 8-8. The teams exchanged sideouts until the Racers scored five of six points to take a 15-11 lead, then expanded that to take a 19-13 lead, getting the last three points behind the serving of sophomore libero Heather Norris. The Colonels scored four straight points to cut MSU's lead to 19-17, but kills from Kemezys and Mugler pushed the Racer lead back out to 21-17. The teams exchanged sideouts until Murray State scored the last five points behind the serving of freshman setter Cassie Chesney -- capped by two kills from Mugler and the game-winner from Jansen -- to win the second game 30-22.
In the third game, Murray State got out to a 6-4 lead, but the Colonels ran off 10 straight points behind the serving of Abbey Blank to take a 14-6 lead. After exchanging sideouts, the Racers won five of the next seven points to narrow the gap to 17-12. After another exchange of sideouts, EKU scored nine of the next 12 points to take a 27-16 lead, then exchanged sideouts en route to the 30-19 win in Game 3.
In the fourth game, Murray State got out to a 5-3 lead, but Eastern Kentucky came back to take a 6-5 lead. The teams exchanged sideouts until a kill from Mugler gave the Racers a 10-9 lead, but the Colonels tied the game at 10-10. Kills from DeMage, Norris and Kemezys pushed MSU out to a 13-10 lead, but EKU countered with four straight points of its own to take a 14-13 lead. A Kemezys kill knotted the game at 14-14, and after the teams exchanged several sideouts, MSU scored five of the next six points to take a 22-19 lead. After an exchange of sideouts, Eastern Kentucky scored three straight points to tie the game at 23-23, and after another exchange of sideouts, scored three more to take a 28-26 lead. The teams exchanged sideouts twice to give EKU the 30-28 win to win the match.
Murray State was led by Jansen's match-high19 kills. Kemezys added 17 kills and a .311 attack percentage, while Mugler had 15 kills. On defense, Norris repelled 28 digs, while Chesney had 24, Groves had 19, DeMage had 14 and Mugler had 11. Chesney handed out 52 assists for the Racers.
For the Colonels, Jessica Sabath had 18 kills, while Kasha Brozek, Bridget Mustard and Denise Grundhoefer had 15 kills apiece. Mustard hit .412, with only one error in 34 attacks. Brittany Nobilio had 35 digs, while Kelly Jennings had 25 and Sabath had 20. Mustard and Amanda Wilson had a match-high five blocks each, while Jennings had 62 assists.
Murray State closes out its four-match road swing at Morehead State tomorrow (Saturday) at 1 p.m. CT. That match will be broadcast through OVCsports.TV (see www.ovcsports.tv for details on how to receive the match), and a link to the Live Stats is available at the Racer volleyball schedule at www.GoRacers.com.
