Marshall University Athletics
MU Downs Morehead State in Five Games
9/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
MU Downs Morehead State in Five Games
9/19/2003
- Box Score
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. ? After falling behind 0-1 to Morehead State, the Marshall volleyball team won games two and three on the way to a 3-2 (18-30, 30-26, 30-25, 23-30, 15-11) victory over the Eagles in the squad?s opening match at the West Virginia University Invitational at WVU Coliseum on Friday.
"Tonight was a very up and down match," said Marshall head coach Mitch Jacobs. "We didn't play very well in game one, but we picked it up in games two and three, and hung on in game five to get the win."
Marshall (7-4) has won five straight matches while ending the Eagles (6-5) three match winning streak.
Marshall trailed 4-6 in the deciding game five, causing Jacobs to gather his troops with a timeout. The second-year skipper?s speech seemed to do the trick in the form of four straight Herd points to take an 8-6 lead, but the Eagles were able to tie the game up at eight and eventually took a 9-8 lead over MU. Once again the Herd rallied off consecutive points to take an 11-9 edge on the road to a 15-11 game five victory.
Morehead St. cruised to a game one win, 30-18, before succumbing to back-to-back Herd victories in the second and third games. Game two saw the Herd lead for much of the stanza, but MSU continued to chip away to close in at 25-27, but Marshall pulled away to record a 30-26 win to tie the match up.
Marshall trailed Morehead St. 6-10 in game three, but a wave of enthusiasm overtook the Thundering Herd en route to seizing a 25-19 lead, causing Eagle head coach Jaime Gordon to call a timeout. Jacobs called a timeout of his own when his squad was unable to put the Eagles away with game point in hand, which eluded to a Nickie Sanlin (Fairview Heights, Ill.) kill for a 30-25 win and a 2-1 MU lead.
Game four commenced with an Eagle service ace and the Herd never seemed to recover, falling behind 1-6 as MSU secured a fifth and deciding game with a 30-23 game four win.
Marshall had 105 digs on the night, and outlasted a very feisty Morehead State team.
Nicole Michal (Louisville, Ky.) led Marshall with 13 kills, 15 digs and five blocks. Tracey King (Miami, Fla.) and Isabell Anderer (Sinsheim, Germany) also added double-doubles for Marshall. King had 11 kills and a career-high 21 digs, while Anderer had 13 kills and 20 digs. Ashley Barnard (Maumee, Ohio) had 32 digs on the night, a career high and the fifth-best single match effort in Marshall history.
Marshall will battle Duquesne University at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday before the state rivalry match commences at 8 p.m. with the host Mountaineers.
