Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
UTEP
Marshall Volleyball Wins C-USA Opener 3-0 Over UTEP
9/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2005
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall volleyball team ushered in the Conference USA era with a win in its league opener as it took care of the UTEP Miners 3-0 (30-25, 30-25, 30-27) Friday night at the Cam Henderson Center.
Marsall improves to 9-4 on the season and is 1-0 in C-USA while the Miners fall to 10-3, 0-1 in the league.
"We beat a red-hot UTEP team tonight," head coach Mitch Jacobs said. "They don't make many mistakes and we really played some good ball tonight. That was by far the cleanest we've played all year."
The Thundering Herd was clicking on all cylinders on offense against UTEP as it outhit the Miners .331 to .140 on the night. Marshall also outblocked the Miners 11 to 4 and outdug them 53 to 48.
"We were executing very well tonight," Jacobs said. "When we get rolling we're hard to stop. Tonight we showed what Marshall volleyball is about. It was a fun show to watch tonight and it's great to get off to a 1-0 start in C-USA."
In game one, the Herd jumped out a took an early lead on a hard kill by Nickie Sanlin. Katie Stein followed that up with an ace and then UTEP had an attack error to give Marshall a 3-0 advantage. UTEP would then rally to tie it at 6-6, but Marshall then unleashed its arsenal of offense from several different directions to build a 15-8 lead. Despite a late UTEP run, the Herd would never relinquish the lead in game one as it went on to take the opening frame 30-25.
Uche Ndubisi gave the Herd a 3-2 lead in game two on a kill and it would never trail again going into intermission with a 2-0 lead. Kelly-Anne Billingy put the hammer down with nine kills in the second game to help the Herd's .347 hitting percentage as it went into the break with the lead.
Game three saw UTEP hop out to an early lead and and hold it until about midway through. Billingy would put down another kill to tie it at 18 and then the Herd turned to its powerhouse All-American and fellow heavy hitters Sanlin, Stephanie Cahill and Amber Sims down the stretch to close it out in front of an energetic crowd sparked by the Student Government Association's 'Spike the Cam' promotion.
"You've got to take your hat off to UTEP, they are a very good team" Jacobs said. "They were pushing us hard in transition and making very few errors. They could've easily won games one and three, but our team put together a gutsy performance to close them out."
On the night, Marshall was led by Billingy with a double-double, 21 kills and 11 digs to go along with her .447 hitting percentage. Cahill hit .320 with 11 kills and 13 digs for a double dip of her own. Senior setter Katie Stein put on an impressive setting display of her own with just over 17 assists per game to finish with 52. Stein also had five kills, three aces, six digs and four block assists.
Nickie Sanlin had nine kills and a .571 hitting percentage and came back with a gutsy performance after injuring her leg in game two. Prior to going down, Sanlin hit 1.000 in game one, connecting on all five of her swings. She had four block assists on the night. Amber Sims had five block assists and Ndubisi had two solos and two assists.
Maggie Arias and Taylor Tanner had nine and seven digs, respectively.
For UTEP, Kari Stacy led the way with 14 kills while Brittany Stowers had 14 digs.
Marshall is off until next Friday when it plays host to East Carolina in the Cam Henderson Center at 7 p.m. The Herd was supposed to play Tulane on Sunday, but it was postponed due to travel concerns from Hurricane Rita.
In 30 matches in the Cam Henderson Center since the arrival of Mitch Jacobs in 2002, the Herd is an impressive 26-4.
