George Washington University Athletics
Volleyball Defeats Rams for Fourth Straight Victory
9/30/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
WASHINGTON, DC (Sept. 30) - Senior Tracee Brown continued to provide the offense with a career-high 30 kills in powering GW past visiting Rhode Island, 15-3, 15-4, 10-15, 15-12, Saturday night at GW's Smith Center. When GW needed a kill, Brown provided them and hit .480 committing just six errors in 50 swings to lead the Colonials. Brown was coming off a 25-kill, .590-percentage effort the previous night against Massachusetts. The victory was GW's fourth straight over an A-10 opponent.
After winning the first two games convincingly, GW coach Jojit Coronel substituted freely in game three using four freshmen and a non-scholarship player. Rhode Island took advantage of GW's young lineup by taking its first lead of the match at 6-5 on a Colonials blocking error. The teams traded leads three times until the Rams went ahead to stay at 11-10 on a kill by Amy Kauppila. The Rams scored the next four points, all on miscues by GW, to capture the game and snap GW's 11-game winning streak.
The Colonials came out strong in game four taking a 7-2 lead before URI battled back with a 10-1 run to take a 12-8 lead and threatened to send the match to a fifth game. GW fought back with a kill by senior Julie Jahnke and a pair of kills by Brown, including the game-winner, to seal the victory.
Jahnke was the only other Colonial with double-figure kills (12) but added 10 digs and six blocks defensively. Freshman Ruth Lazzari added a team-high 11 digs.
The Rams (1-12, 0-5 A-10) were led by Cheri Melson's 20 kills and 11 digs. URI is off to its worst start in coach Bob Schneck's 20 years as Rams' head coach.
GW (12-3, 4-1 A-10) next travels to Ohio to face Dayton Friday, Oct. 6 and Xavier on Oct. 7 in Cincinnati.
