Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Louisville
Volleyball Closes Out Ohio Tournament
9/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 10, 2011
ATHENS, OHIO - The Marshall Volleyball squad recorded two losses to finish the Ohio Tournament Saturday afternoon. Tournament host, Ohio, swept the Thundering Herd 3-0 (27-25, 25-17, 25-15) and Louisville followed suit later in the day, beating Marshall 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 26-24).
Marshall drops to 1-7 with the two defeats and finished the Ohio Tournament winless after losing to Virginia on Friday. Ohio moves to a 4-4 record with the win and Louisville boasts a 8-2 with the victory.
In the match against Ohio, the Herd took the first set down to the wire, forcing the set into extra points, but attack errors committed by Abby Tomas and Dorothy Rahal in the last two points helped push the Bobcats to a 27-25 win. Marshall came out strong in the second set, at one point going up five points on Ohio early in the set, but Ohio able to overcome the deficit and win 25-17. The Bobcats secured the win in the third set after keeping Marhshall at bay, limiting the Herd to a 0.074 team attack percentage.
The final tournament match against Louisville ended in the same fashion. The 2010 Big East conference champions came out strong in the first two sets after only allowing the Herd 18 points in the first set and 19 in the second. At one point in the third set, Marshall had a 16-10 lead, but Louisville's Lolo Arlsanbekova's seven kill performance helped push the Cardinals to the win the third and final set.
"We have an awful long way to go," commented Coach Jacobs after the tournament. "After playing an exceptional set one against Ohio it was very discouraging the way we finished. But to turn around and play the top team in the tournament (Louisville) who beat everybody, the way we played allows us to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But in the words of Groucho Marx, 'let's hope that light is not a train'. We had some very good individual efforts on the weekend. Desirre Wilkerson is playing some of the best volleyball she has ever played. Yoho is playing better and better on the outside and Abby Tomas is just continuing to play very strong on the right. Losing Laura Der from the front row, due to an abnoman pull, hurt us a lot this weekend, but Dorothy Rahal played extremely hard moving from the libero to the outside hitter role. Hopefully we can regain some health and turn in the right direction as we enter conference play."
Cameron Yoho finished the tournament with the most kills with 29 and was closely followed by Abby Tomas with 27. Yoho also led in service aces with three and finished with 21 digs. Sammie Bane continues to lead the Herd in assists at her setter spot and recorded 68 assists during the weekend. Laura Der had the most digs with 25 on the defensive side of the net and Desirre Wilkerson finished with a team-leading 5.5 blocks.
The volleyball program will host the upcoming Thunder Invitational and will compete in their first home match of the season against East Carolina. The Herd will also face George Mason and Central Michigan during the weekend.
