November 11, 2006 - Rider 3 Iona 0
November 11, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Volleyball
Rider University 3, Iona College 0
LAWRENCEVILLE—For number eight Megan Smith, the lone senior on senior day, eight was enough. The Broncs broke an eight match losing streak, defeating Iona in the final regular season Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match of the season.
Rider (8-19, 6-12 MAAC) defeated the Gaels in three straight, winning 30-20, 30-25, 34-32.
“It is important to win, especially going into championships to gain momentum,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist. “To re-learn how to finish a match was important as well.”
For the Broncs, senior Megan Smith (Webster, N.Y./Webster), playing in her final home match had 20 kills with sophomore Lacey Johnson (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) adding 20 digs and nine kills. Freshman Jenna Landis (Brinklow, Md./Chapelgate) who entered the match with 34 digs all season had a career-high 21 digs today.
“The players had a good practice yesterday,” said Ahlquist. “They put in the work and today it showed on the court. We concentrated on working as one unit and as a team and not one individual and looking at the stat sheet, with five players in double-digits in digs, that effort paid off. We concentrated on defense and that’s where we get our energy and momentum, off our defense.”
“I just wanted to come out and win the match,” said Smith who added four blocks and accounted for 23.5 points. “We could play Iona again this coming week at MAAC’s so we wanted to come out strong against them. I wanted to have a strong game in my last match in Alumni Gym.”
“We actually were sick of losing,” said Johnson. “We wanted to win for Megan [Smith] of course but we also wanted to go into the conference tournament off a win.”
In the first game that saw four ties and four lead changes early on, the Broncs broke a 12-12 tie with a 6-0 run, wining the first match by 10. In the second game which again saw four ties and four lead changes, the Broncs used a 12-4 run to break a 5-5 tie, opening up a 17-9 lead. Iona battled back to within two at 25-23 with Rider finishing the game with a 5-2 run to win by five. Game three saw 14 ties and eight lead changes with Iona staving off three match points before Rider won 34-32. Down 28-22, Iona used a 7-1 run to tie the score at 29 late in the match.
Junior Katrina Stehle (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) had a ‘double-double’ with 10 digs and 10 kills with freshman JoAnna Winter (Hamburg, Minn./Mayer Lutheran) adding 41 assists.
“When we did get down, we didn’t dig ourselves a hole,” Johnson added. “It may have been one or two points but we didn’t get down seven or eight and that made the difference. We were able to keep our focus and intensity and we communicated a lot better today as well.”
“We had a good practice yesterday,” said Smith who will graduate in May with a degree in Secondary Education & English. “Everyone was really excited before the game and wanted to play well, not just for me on senior day but for the overall team as well. We wanted to put forth our best effort in our last home match of the season.”
“We struggled a lot mentally in the last few matches,” said Landis. “We worked hard in practice and focused on the mental as well as the physical effort and that showed today. Our communication picked up today and when we work together, the more successful we are.”
The Broncs head to Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida for the conference championships November 15-19. The official pairings of the double-elimination tournament will be announced by the conference office on Monday.
“It’s going to be hard to face a team the third time around if we play Iona,” Ahlquist added. “We will have to step up our game because Iona is a good team. They scrap and battle and nothing against them today was easy. To have to play them again so soon will give them a good chance to make adjustments to what we do and we will have to work on some different looks to counter what they will try to do against us.”
“We expect some ‘magic’ in the Magic Kingdom,” Smith added. “We are a little anxious but we are also excited to have the opportunity to make up for the past few matches. Any team that is going to face us is not going to have an easy match and that’s the effort that we have to keep coming out with.”
The ‘magic’ of the Magic Kingdom awaits.
-RU-
