September 1, 2006 - Rider 3 Maryland Eastern Shore 0 / La Salle 3 Rider 1
September 1, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Women’s College Volleyball
La Salle Invitational
Rider University 3, Univ. Maryland Eastern-Shore 0
La Salle University 3, Rider University 1
PHILADELPHIA, PA--That’s why you play the game. Coming into the first match on Friday, on paper at least, it looked like it could be a long day for Rider. The Lady Hawks of Maryland Eastern Shore entered the match with a 3-1 record with the Broncs 0-3.
Well, that’s why you play the game. Rider (1-4) swept UMES 3-0, winning 30-16, 30-21, 30-26, recording an attack percentage of .261 along the way. In the nightcap, Rider dropped a two-hour ‘slugfest’ against the host Explorers, falling in four games.
“It’s hard to compare teams, especially by record since each team is playing different opponents,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist. “We knew that we played very good teams last weekend and knew with our work in practice that we got better and we were able to show that today, in both matches.”
Against the Lady Hawks, the Broncs put on a balanced attack with five of the eight players in the box score recording at least six kills and five of the eight scoring at least seven digs. And by the way, Rider made only 16 errors in the entire match.
“We definitely came out strong,” said junior Katrina Stehle. “We came out with energy, moved very well, dove on the floor for the loose balls, we were all over, helping each other out, calling out the shots, you could feel the energy and how much fun we were having together.”
Stehle (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) had 14 kills, nine digs and three service aces against UMES and added eight kills and six digs against La Salle.
“In the second match, La Salle stepped it up a little bit but we were able to keep the pace up and we were able to go right at them as well,” Stehle added. “Being a young team, we definitely have to step it up in different areas. If we had five returning starters and only one person was learning the system that would be one thing but with so many new faces, we all have to work together and playing more matches like today and practicing hard will make us better.”
Freshman Shannon Bures (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) had 50 assists against La Salle and 42 against UMES with fellow rookie Amy Jeary (Depew, N.Y./St. Mary’s) adding 22 digs against the Lady Hawks and 12 digs against the Explorers. Sophomore Lacey Johnson (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) added 13 digs and seven kills against UMES and 11 digs and eight kills against La Salle. Senior Megan Smith (Webster, N.Y./Webster) had 18 kills against the Explorers after posting 11 kills against the Lady Hawks.
Last weekend, the Broncs struggled at times getting used to the speed of the matches and working as a unit for the whole match. Today was a little different.
“This morning we came our fast, ran our offense, played strong defense and we kind of took the match over from game one and put in a complete effort,” Ahlquist added. “Even in the second match, we put forth a much more complete effort than last weekend and could have easily won both matches today. It was a very good showing. We made a couple of mental mistakes here and there, other wise the match would have turned out differently. Each point was very long and both teams played extremely well.”
La Salle (3-2) won in four games 34-36, 30-22, 30-25, 30-25 after defeating Rider last weekend by the same 3-1 margin.
“We played tough teams but we also knew the things we had to correct from last weekend,” added Stehle. “We made some mental errors and we cleaned those up in practice during the week and concentrated on the things we had to work on and you could see that in the effort and execution today.”
With college being the learning experience that it is, the Broncs went back to the classroom after last weekend.
“We definitely had better chemistry and everyone was more involved than last week,” said senior Megan Smith, the lone member of the class of 2007 on the squad. “Our setters were connecting with our hitters, our hitters were putting the balls down and our blockers were where they were supposed to be. From the experiences of these two matches today, we are going to get better, even though we didn’t win both matches. The better the competition, the better we play the more work we get in and the better we will be prepared for the conference season.”
Which is why you play the game.
-RU-
