Marshall University Athletics
Herd Volleyball Ready for First Home Match of 2006
9/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2006
HUNTINGTON - It has been a long road home for the Marshall University Thundering Herd volleyball team. It has been 295 days since the Herd has hosted a home match and at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 5, Marshall (2-5) will face former Mid-American Conference rival Miami University (3-3) at the Cam Henderson Center.
The two schools' last match-up came last season in Oxford, Ohio, and the RedHawks won 3-0 (23-30, 21-30, 24-30). The all-time series also belongs to the Redhawks winning 14 of 18 meetings.
Marshall is coming back to the Henderson Center after making a Midwest swing that began in Cincinnati Wednesday against Xavier. The Herd then continued on to Bloomington, Ind., to play at the TIS Bookstore Classic. The Herd finished the road swing with a 1-3 record falling to Xavier 3-1 (30-20, 30-32, 30-13, 30-13), Indiana 3-0 (30-27, 31-29, 30-28), Maryland 3-1 (21-30, 31-29, 30-20, 30-28) and defeating Chicago State 3-0 (30-21, 30-13, 30-15).
During the four-match road trip, Marshall was rejoined by outside hitters Stephanie Cahill (Louisville, Ky.) and Kelly-Anne Billingy (Trincity, Trinidad). The two made immediate impacts for the Herd as Cahill posted a double-double in her second match back since suffering an ankle injury in the season opener.
Billingy's weekend was good enough to land her second on the team in kills after three matches. Her 63 kills is only one behind team leader Chelsea Lazar (Palm Harbor, Fla.), who has 64 kills through seven matches.
Lazar has also performed well in the early going of the season. Not only is she leading the team in kills but she also leads the squad in solo blocks with nine. She only trails by teammate and the C-USA leader in blocks, Uche Ndubisi (Indianapolis, Ind.), by one total block. Ndubisi has 30 blocks so far this season.
Libero Maggie Arias (Indianapolis, Ind.) has accounted for 99 digs so far this season, giving her an average of 3.81 digs per game. She is followed by freshman Kristin Marcum (Arlington, Texas), who has 66. Marcum's 60 kills currently ranks third on the team and her 11 blocks are good enough for fourth.
At setter, senior Christin Bimberg (Schwerin, Germany) and her 165 assists leads the team and has nearly doubled her career total. Katherine Poss (Newnan, Ga.) has also seen time at setter and her multifaceted game has put her in the top five of six different statistical categories (second in assists with 142, tied for second in aces with five, fifth in digs with 40, third in solo blocks with three, third in block assists with 11 and third in total blocks with 14).
Following the Herd's mid-week tilt with the RedHawks Tuesday, Marshall will travel to Pittsburgh to participate in the Pitt Invitational. Friday, the Herd will face Lehigh at 4:30 p.m. and will play Tennessee (10:30 a.m.) and Pittsburgh (7:30 p.m.) Saturday.
