Troy University Athletics
Trojans Bounce Back Against IUPUI
9/5/2008 5:00:00 AM | Volleyball
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Troy Trojans bounced back from an early-morning loss to Indiana State, defeating IUPUI Friday afternoon in the Tiger Invitational. The Trojans captured the first game and rode the momentum of that game to pick up a 3-1 victory over the Jaguars (25-18, 25-21, 9-25, 25-20).
In the first game of the match, the Trojans and Jaguars traded the first points of the contest, followed by Troy going on a 6-0 lead to take a 7-1 advantage and gain momentum for the remainder of the game. Freshman Erin Kissling started the run with a kill off an assist from sophomore Megan Henderson, followed by a pair of blocks from senior Aubre Smith to take a 5-1 lead. Smith and Henderson combined on a block to give the Trojans a 6-1 lead, before Smith put away her third kill of the game to push the advantage to 7-1.
IUPUI (2-2) closed the gap to 14-11 midway through the opening set, only to see Troy's Henderson record a kill and the Trojans extended the lead to 16-11 following an attack error by IUPUI. The Trojans continued to benefit from attack errors, scoring on a trio of those errors on consecutive serves to push the score to 19-12. After IUPUI trimed the lead to 20-14, Smith struck again with another kill to push the lead to 21-14, followed by another IUPUI attack error and a service ace by Vicky Rogoschewsky pushed the lead to 23-14. After IUPUI made a 4-0 run to trim the lead to 23-18, the first game was ended on a service error by IUPUI and a kill by Henderson for the 25-18 victory.
The Trojans found themselves trailing in the second game in the early going, 3-2. That deficit did not stand for long as Henderson took a pass from Washlow and recorded a kill to tie the second game at 3-all. After another Smith kill and yet another IUPUI error, the Trojans found themselves up 5-3 in the second game. The Jaguars made a push to tie the game at 6-all, until the Trojans went on a 6-2 run to take their biggest lead of the game 12-7. The run was started on a pair of errors by IUPUI, until the Jaguars Kalyse Reimbold recorded a kill to trim the Troy lead to 8-7. Freshman Brittany McClelland recorded a kill to push the lead to 9-7, and the Trojans made use of two more IUPUI attack errors for an 11-7 lead. Junior Meghan Gilroy ended the run for the Trojans with a kill.
After IUPUI trimmed the lead to 20-16, Gilroy recorded another attack for a 21-16 lead. From there the two teams would trade points until the Jaguars trimmed the lead to 23-21. Henderson took pass from Meghan Washlow and put the kill away for a 24-21 lead, and the game came to an end when Kissling hammered home another kill for the 25-21 victory in game two.
"The first two sets of each match we played really good," Kirkpatrick said. "Our problem is just the third set. You have to give credit to IUPUI in that set because they took took control of the set from the beginning."
The third game did not start the way the Trojans envisioned, although they took a 3-0 lead to open the contest on a block by Henderson and Gilroy, followed by an error on IUPUI and a kill by Kissling. IUPUI stormed back to take a 4-3 lead on back-to-back kills by Lauran Thompson, a kill by Reimbold and a kill by Cassidy Lamburg. From there, IUPUI took a 5-4 lead, before Troy closed the deficit to 7-6 on a pair of errors by IUPUI. The Jaguars, however, went on a 9-0 run to take a 15-6 lead. The Trojans ended the run on a kill by Smith off an assist from Henderson to trim the lead to 15-7, but IUPUI scored three consecutive points to take an 18-7 lead. The lead was pushed to as many as 12 (19-7), before Gilroy pounding home a kill to trim the deficit to 19-8. IUPUI finished off the third game on a 6-1 run for a 25-9 victory.
"We just have to be more consistent and figure out a way to get through the third set," head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick said. "We just played horrible in both of the third sets today, our biggest concern right now is to come out focused after the break and be more focused."
After struggling in game three and falling behind on the first point of game four, the Trojans settled down to take an early 2-1 lead following a kill by freshman Laura Mackley and a service ace by Washlow. IUPUI took a 4-3 lead, before a Kissling kill evened the score at 4-all in the early happenings of game four. After IUPUI took a 5-4 lead, the two teams traded points with IUPUI taking a 7-6 lead. After an attack error by Thompson tied the game at 7-all, Smith recorded a kill to give the Trojans their first lead of the match since early in game three, at 8-7. The two teams continued to trade points with the Trojans getting a kill from senior Jennifer White to take a 9-8 lead, before IUPUI tied the game at 9-all.
After the match was tied, the Trojans scored back-to-back points to take an 11-9 lead in the fourth game. A kill by Kissling gave the Trojans a 10-9 lead, and another service ace by Washlow gave Troy an 11-9 lead. After IUPUI trimmed the deficit to one at 11-10, Mackley recorded a kill off an assist from Henderson, before recording a service ace to give the Trojans a 13-10 lead. The lead was pushed to 14-10 on a kill by Gilroy (assist from Henderson) and then to 15-10 on an attack error by IUPUI. The two teams traded points with the Trojans taking an insurmountable 18-14 lead late in the fourth and deciding game. Although the Trojans held a four-point lead, neither team rested until the final point was decided. IUPUI trimmed the lead to 18-15, before Troy took advantage of an attack error by IUPUI pushed the lead to 19-15. The lead grew to 20-15 on a block by Mackley and White, before IUPUI went on a 5-1 run to trim the lead to 21-20 late in the game.
After the Jaguars trimmed the deficit to one, Troy head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick called a timeout and that timeout paid dividends for Troy. An attack error by IUPUI gave the Trojans a 22-20 lead late, and that was followed by a block by Gilroy to give Troy a 23-20 lead. The lead was pushed to 24-20 on a kill from Gilroy on an assist from Henderson. The match ended on an attack error by IUPUI gave the Trojans a 25-20 victory in the deciding game.
Gilroy led the Trojans with 12 kills, while Kissling added nine kills and 11 digs. Smith added eight kills and five blocks in the victory. Henderson finished the contest with 31 assists, 10 digs, four kills and three blocks, while Washlow added 14 digs and a pair of service aces. Mackley added 13 digs, while sophomore Emily Strader added 12 of Troy's 68 digs in the Trojan victory.
Troy (2-3) returns to action Saturday morning at 2 pm against Iona College, before wrapping up the Tiger Invitational against the University of Memphis at 7 pm Saturday night.
