Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Tennessee Tech
Volleyball Falls To Upstart Tennessee Tech
11/10/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State volleyball team wanted to end its regular-season schedule with a win at home, but Tennessee Tech needed the win more to assure itself of a spot in the six-team Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament and played that way, winning 3-0. Game scores were 30-26, 30-24, 30-22.
Murray State will get either the No. 4 or the No. 5 seed, depending on the outcome of late matches. Tournament information will be announced on GoRacers.com once it is known.
In Game 1 against Tennessee Tech, the Racers (16-14, 13-7 OVC) got out to a 16-13 lead, but the Golden Eagles got behind the serving of Teresa Craig to run off six straight points to take a 19-16 lead. Tennessee Tech (17-14, 11-9 OVC) was able to fend off MSU down the stretch en route to the 30-26 win.
In the second game, Murray State again took an early lead, leading 13-11 when Tech's Jessica Asplund served up five straight points to push TTU ahead 16-13. Murray State pulled to within one, 18-17, when the Golden Eagles outscored the Racers 8-3 to push ahead and take the 30-24 win.
After the intermission, Tennessee Tech jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead, then expanded that to 21-11. The Racers fought back, outscoring Tech 8-2 behind the service of freshman middle hitter Sara Hayden, junior outside hitter Alyssa Groves and sophomore setter Cassie Chesney to narrow the gap to 23-19. That was as close as MSU could come falling in Game 3 30-22 and losing the match three games to none.
"This shows that Tennessee Tech deserves to play in the OVC Tournament," said MSU head coach David Schwepker. "They are very good. This is going to be a crazy tournament; any team in it has the chance to win it. Last year, Southeast Missouri was the No. 6 seed, and they went all the way to the championship match. This year, that is very likely to happen, even having the No. 6 seed win it."
"We played like we really needed to win," said TTU head coach John Blair. "We knew how good Murray State is at home, so I knew it was going to be a battle. The score doesn't reflect the quality of the match we played. Murray just caught us on a day when we decided to really play. This is a tribute to our conference, that on the last day of play, we still need to determine who the No. 1 seed and the No. 6 seed will be."
Murray State was paced by senior middle hitter Tara DeMage, who was honored prior to the match as an outgoing senior playing her final career match in Racer Arena. DeMage had a team-high 11 kills and hit .333, with only two errors in 27 attacks. Groves added 10 kills for the Racers. Freshman outside hitter Ashley Nenninger came in for Games 2 and 3 and picked up four kills without an error in nine attacks, hitting .444. Chesney handed out a match-high 44 assists.
Junior libero Heather Norris repelled a match-high 19 digs, while junior outside hitter Alison Mugler had 11 and Groves had 10, the only Racers with a double-double. Hayden rejected a match-high four blocks.
For Tennessee Tech, Amanda Lindgren had a match-high 21 kills, hitting .486 with only three errors in 37 attacks. Meffert added 14 kills, while Erin Lynn had 10. Meffert served up a match-high five aces, while Kappy Lang handed out 40 assists. Meffert also had 17 digs, while Katie Kenline had 13 and Lang had 11. Meffert and Caitlin Bullock each had three blocks for the Golden Eagles.
The OVC Championship Tournament will be played next weekend. The site and pairings have not yet been made official, but will be announced at GoRacers.com later tonight.
