Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Tennessee State
Volleyball Falls in Four to Tennessee State
11/9/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Murray State volleyball jumped out and won the opening game, but they could not maintain the momentum as Tennessee State rallied to take the next three games and hand the Racers a 30-26, 24-30, 19-30, 27-30 defeat Friday evening at Racer Arena.
TSU (16-13, 13-6 OVC) took advantage of the height as they recorded 36 block assists to just four for the Racers. Endia Oliver led the charge with 11 block assists and one solo block, while Kelly Davis added 10 block assists.
MSU (16-13, 13-6 OVC) stormed out of the gates to a 10-1 advantage and forced a timeout from the Tigers. TSU responded out the break and scored 11 of the next 13 points to tie the score 12-12. The two teams would split the next 16 points to keep the score knotted 20-20 before a pair of Tigers' hitting errors and a kill from Alyssa Groves gave the Racers a three-point advantage. They would push the advantage to five on a kill from Tara DeMage before DeMage ended the game with two more kills.
The second game saw the Tigers jump out to an early 5-1 lead before the Racers regrouped to tie the score 16-16. TSU would regain control of the game on a block from Kelly Davis and Kamille King. Christian Lowe would set up game point with a kill before Colleen Dornan and Oliver combined on a game-ending block.
TSU made sure to keep the momentum out of the locker room in game three as Tigers recorded 18 kills and only two errors to take the game 30-19. The Tigers used an 11-4 break open the close game early and pushed the advantage to 12 on a block from Davis and Dornan. MSU would get as close as nine on a kill from Becca Lamb, but Oliver would end things with two-straight kills.
MSU looked poised to pull even in the match as they jumped out to an 18-13 advantage on a solo block from Lamb. TSU score the next four points to pull within one, but the Racers quickly pushed the lead back to 24-18 on a kill from Groves. The Racers would not be able to hold on to that advantage as the Tigers battled to tie the score on three different occasions before taking the lead for good at 28-27 on a kill from Lowe. Dornan followed with a kill and Lowe ended the match with a solo block.
Groves paced the balanced Racers' attack with 15 kills and 13 digs. DeMage added 13 kills and 17 digs, while Alison Mugler and Lamb collected 11 kills, and Sara Hayden 10. Heather Norris had a match-high 24 digs.
The Tigers offense was led by 22 kills from Lowe and 20 from Davis.
The Racers close out their 2007 home season tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. against Tennessee Tech.
