Troy University Athletics
Trojans Drop Two Tough Matches on Saturday
8/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
TROY -- The Troy University volleyball team battled hard in its two matches on Saturday at the Hampton Inn Spiketacular but was unable to get ahead as it fell to both Tulsa and North Florida.
Against Tulsa, Troy struggled early and in three games was never able to take the lead as it dropped three games to Tulsa by scores of 30-21, 30-14 and 30-23.
Sophomore Meghan Washlow notched 23 assists and eight digs against the Golden Hurricanes. Also helping the Trojans offensively was freshman Kerry Heinz as she had six kills.
For Tulsa, Germana Hilario recorded 16 kills and three digs. Julia Silvia notched 35 assists, nine digs and three block assists.
We played three very good teams this weekend. One picked to win their conference and two picked to finish in the top three or four of their conference,” head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick said. Even by going 0-3 we became substantially better as a team. We will only get better by playing teams of this caliber.”
The Trojans started day two of the Hampton Inn Spiketacular off on a high note winning the first game, 30-25, of the match with North Florida. However, the Trojans were unable to hang on to the momentum and dropped the next three games by scores of 30-24, 30-20 and 30-21.
Freshman Liz Leeds and sophomore Meghan Washlow led the Trojans on Saturday against the Ospreys. Leeds notched ten kills and 11 digs while Washlow recorded 34 assists and four service aces.
Also for the Trojans, junior Carla Rasuck helped out on defense with her 22 digs and also saw help from sophomore Jean McCarthy with her 13 digs.
At one point Troy lead 20-16 over the Ospreys and while UNF attempted a comeback the Trojans fought for the win with a final score of 30-25.
Troy continued to battle in game two but could never get to within five points as UNF won 30-24.
In game three Troy started off strong keeping the game within one point but fell behind by two with the score at 13-10 and could never battle back enough to take over the lead.
The Trojans fell behind early in game four and could never gain the momentum to forge a comeback.
For the Ospreys, Allison O'Neill recorded 15 kills and nine digs. Also for UNF, Emily Kohler had six blocks, 12 kills and two service aces.
Troy will be back in action on Friday Sept. 1 when it plays host to the Trojan Labor Day Classic. The Trojans will play Alcorn State at 4 p.m.
Admission to all home volleyball matches is free.
A recap of the day:
St. Mary's (Calif.) 3, North Florida 0 (30-28, 30-22, 30-26)
St. Mary's completed a three-match sweep at the Hampton Inn Spiketacular Saturday morning with a 3-0 win over North Florida. The Gaels had just 33 kills, but forced UNF into 33 errors and a .114 hitting percentage.
Missie Stidham, Brittany Barker and Taylor Groess each had six kills, while Mandy Bible added 21 assists and a pair of service aces.
North Florida recorded 48 kills, 16 by Emily Kohler, while Jenna Thomas added 40 assists. But the Ospreys also tallied 12 service errors.
Tulsa 3, Florida A&M 0 (30-17, 30-23, 30-28)
Tulsa forced 24 attack errors, nine off blocks, to cruise past Florida A&M in Saturday's second match. Germana Hilario had 11 kills and just one error, while Kassiana Urnau added 10 kills to lead the Golden Hurrcanes.
Julia Silva ran the attack with 38 assists and had five blocks, while Fabiola Nepomuceno also recorded five blocks. Tulsa, which hit .288, improved to 2-0 with the win.
Florida A&M fell to 0-2 despite 15 kills from Marrita Crockett.
