Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Cal Poly
Volleyball Drops Match to Cal Poly, 3-1
8/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 28, 2010
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The Marshall University volleyball team fell to Cal Poly, 3-1 (20-25, 23-25, 25-15 and 14-25) in the first match of a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at the Purcell Pavilion. The Thundering Herd will play No. 18 Arizona at 5 p.m. to round out tournament play at the Shamrock Invitational.
Senior Elizabeth Herman produced a match-best 18 kills on 35 attempts, with only five errors to register a .371 hitting percentage. Herman also added eight digs as Marshall dropped to 0-2 on the young season.
Classmate Elizabeth Fleming totaled 41 assists and eight digs, while freshman Laura Der led her second match in a row with 14 digs. Sophomore Abby Tomas came off the bench to tally a career-high 10 kills and junior Cameron Yoho did a solid job in the middle, hitting .417 (6K-1E-12TA) as the Herd will look to bounce back against the Wildcats.
"Cameron Yoho did and outstanding job offensively and on defense held Cal Poly's top middle to hitting a very low percentage," head coach Mitch Jacobs said.
In the opening set of the afternoon, Marshall and Cal Poly (2-0) traded points through the middle portion of the stanza. A kill from Herman put the Herd on top 19-18, but the Mustangs followed up with a 7-1 run to claim the first frame of the match, 25-20.
"We started out not playing to win," Jacobs said. "We started to get in going in the middle of game two and had a real positive attitude. The team became a lot tougher and the service game picked up."
MU found themselves down 17-10 in the second set, when the Herd offense started rolling. Jacobs' squad utilized a 12-2 scoring frenzy to take a two-point cushion. The run featured three service aces, one each from Der, Ryanne Milligan and Katy Schad. After the Mustangs scored three-straight points to knot the score at 22-22, Desirre Wilkerson connected for a kill to put the Herd ahead. Three-straight kills, including the last two from Cal Poly's Dominique Olowolafe allowed the Mustangs to escape with a 25-23 victory heading into the third frame.
"Being up 21-19 in game two and not pulling away is a glaring factor," Jacobs said. "The team has to learn how to finish sets all the way through and put teams away."
After dropping the first two sets of the match, Wilkerson sparked the Herd in the third set, as the Louisville, Ky., native helped propel the team to an early 10-2 lead. The freshman smoked a trio of aces in the early rally and added a kill to take an eight-point advantage. MU would cruise the rest of the set, winning 25-15. As a team the Herd hit at a .448 attacking clip, connected for 14 kills on 29 attempts with just one error.
The momentum from the third set was unable to carry over in the fourth frame, as Cal Poly built a 16-5 lead on the way to winning 25-14 to take the set and the match.
"We are competing against teams that we can't play mediocre against to win," Jacobs said.
The Herd will play again on Saturday at 5 p.m. against No. 18 Arizona.
MATCH NOTES: Marshall tallied 10 aces, topping the 2009 team-best of nine against WVU (9/23/09)ââ'¬Â¦Tomas' previous career-high in kills was seven at SMU (10/3/09).
