Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Eastern Michigan
Volleyball Comes Up Empty in First Day of IUPUI Tournament
9/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 3, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS, IND. - The Marshall Volleyball program opened up the IUPUI Tournament Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Eastern Michigan (25-21, 25-21, 25-19) and followed with the same result against tournament hosts, IUPUI (20-25, 16-25, 18-25).
Marshall drops to 0-4 with the losses, but looks to find their first win in the third match of the event, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET tomorrow afternoon against Stetson, who is currently winless in the tournament as well.
The Herd was led by senior Cameron Yoho during the day. Yoho was the team-leader in kills and digs after finishing with 20 kills and 19 digs. Abby Tomas closely followed in kills with 19 and Laura Der collected 15 kills during the two matches.
Defensively Sacha Byous-McConnell presented the best play at the net after closing out with 7 blocks. Laura Der, Ryanne Milligan and Dorothy Rahal followed Yoho's 19 dig performance with each player having a plus-15 dig count. Freshman, Sammie Bane, made her fourth consecutive start at setter and posted 57 assists on the day.
Eastern Michigan took the match in straight sets with help from their star outside-hitter Rachel Iaquaniello. She finished with 15 kills, two service aces and a .483 attack percentage. EMU's Haley Stein recorded 17 digs and setter Ashley Mason closed out with 33 assists to overcome the Herd.
"We are doing some good things, but the bottom line is that we are being out competed," addressed Head Coach Mitch Jacobs after the match against EMU. "Eastern Michigan is very experienced and was patient. We committed too many unforced errors. With the execution we have shown, I could live with the losses, but not the up and down effort we are showing."
IUPUI was able to sweep the Herd after being able to hold Marshall to a .060 team attack average during the match. The powerful IUPUI floor defense was too much to handle as three different Jaguar players had plus-10 dig counts, including Shari Bernhardt's 19 dig performance. Bethany Fogler also had a dominant presence at the net after finishing with 9 blocks.
Coach Jacobs commented after the IUPUI match, "We didn't respond like we had hoped. It's there, we just have to find a way to be positive and fight through this. We have talent, but we are constantly giving in when teams are pushing."
You can follow Sunday's 12:30 p.m. ET match versus Stetson on the LIVE STATS LINK found here. Be sure to follow all post-match recaps on www.herdzone.com.
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