Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Memphis
Memphis Sweeps By Volleyball, 3-0
10/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 31, 2008
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Marshall University's Kristin Marcum (Arlington, Texas) downed a team-best seven kills, but Memphis received a match-high 14-kill effort from Emily Underwood to help lift the Tigers to a 3-0 (11-25, 24-26, 17-25) sweep of the Thundering Herd in Friday night's Conference USA volleyball match in Memphis, Tenn.
With the loss, Marshall falls to 10-12, 3-9 in league action, while Memphis improves to 16-10 overall, 7-5 in the conference.
Trailing 2-0 in the contest, Marshall stormed out to an 11-7 lead in the third set on the strength of three kills and a service ace from Emily Sullivan (Cincinnati, Ohio). The Herd extended its lead to 14-10 before the Tigers responded by scoring 12 of the next 14 points, highlighted by a 9-0 run, to post a 22-16 lead. Memphis then closed out the match with a 3-1 run, capped by a kill from Casey Sines.
The win for Memphis evens the season series at 1-1, as Marshall now owns a 6-2 all-time advantage on the Tigers.
In the opening set, Memphis roared out to an early 8-2 lead before Jalicia Ross (Bank Village, Trinidad) stopped the run with a kill. The Tigers extended its lead to 11-3 with a string of three straight points before Elizabeth Fleming (South Bend, Ind.) terminated a ball to halt the Memphis attack. The Tigers pushed its lead to 13-4 before Layne Kehl (Mountain Top, Pa.) recorded a kill and Elizabeth Herman (Dunwoody, Ga.) added a solo block to bring the score to 13-6. With the score set at 15-6, Herman blasted a kill and Megan Carlson (Andover, Minn.) added a service ace to pull to within seven at 15-8. From there, Memphis used a pair of 4-0 runs to generate a 23-10 cushion before posting a 25-11 first set victory.
The second stanza saw four early ties and a 12-12 score before Marcum delivered back-to-back kills to give Marshall a 14-12 edge. Following a Memphis point, Cameron Yoho (Sistersville, W.Va.) and Carlson went back-to-back with a pair of kills, and Sullivan added her second of the match to give the Herd a 17-14 lead. Marshall moved its advantage to 18-14, but a 5-1 run by the Tigers enabled the frame to be knotted at 19-19. The teams would play to three more stalemates before Marshall broke a 23-23 deadlock. However, Memphis rallied for three straight points, capped by a Lauren Thompson kill and a Herd ball handling error to give the Tigers a 26-24 second set and a 2-0 lead in the contest.
Sullivan finished with five kills, while Yoho added four in the losing effort. Carlson added seven digs and a pair of service aces, while Taylor Tanner (Union, Ky.) also had seven digs. Fleming registered 20 assists while chipping in three kills and six digs.
Thompson and Katlin Inglish blasted eight kills apiece while Laura Cote paced the Tigers offense with 31 assists and eight digs. Christine Bach tallied a match-high nine digs in the win for Memphis.
Memphis out-hit the Herd .341-.106 and had three players register above a .400 hitting percentage. The Tigers also had seven service aces, and out-blocked Marshall 8.0-2.0.
Marshall will continue its final regular-season C-USA road trip when it travels to Birmingham, Ala. for a showdown with UAB Blazers, Sunday, Nov. 2. First-serve is slated for 2:00 p.m. ET. ¬¬ GameTracker for Sunday's match will be available by visiting HerdZone.com.
