George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Fordham
Volleyball Rallies Past Fordham to Win Sixth Straight
10/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 24, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC -- For the second time in their last three outings, the George Washington volleyball team rallied from two sets down to win an A-10 match. Friday's victim was Fordham which fell by the scores, 20-25, 31-33, 26-24, 26-24, 15-13, in a two-hour, 17-minute classic. It marked the sixth straight victory for the Colonials and kept them atop the A-10's East Division at 5-3 in the league.
GW rode the clutch hitting of sophomore Hannah Stuart and the powerful serving of senior Jackie Yaniga to change the momentum. Stuart led the Colonials with career-highs for points with 22.5, kills with 20 in addition to hitting .439. Yaniga served her career-high five aces, many at crucial points in the match, to turn the momentum back to GW. Katie Butz scored 19 points on 16 kills with six block assists while Abby Syverson assited on eight blocks and added a solo block and a pair of aces for 13 points.
Add to that the fact that the Colonials were without the services of freshman hitter MacKenzie Knox who was sidelined with an injury and played the final four sets without Liz Moult who played briefly in the first set.
Fordham took charge early and won the first set ona kill by Jenna Hart after the Rams pulled away from a 13-13 tie to coast tothe 25-20 victory, The second set was the longest of the season and featured 13 ties, the last coming at 31-31 before the Rams got a kill from Katie Wells and won, 33-31, on a GW attack error.
Following the 10-minute intermission, the teams battled back and forth to a 24-24 deadlock before GW got consecutive kills from Katie Zulandt and Leah Hill for the 26-24 triumph. The fourth set was another see-saw affair with another kill by Hill breaking a 24-24 tie follwoed by a ball-handling error by FU's Katherine Burrell.
The decisive fifth set was even through a 6-6 ties before Fordham grabbed the lead on a pari of kills by Wells and a Zulandt attack error for a 9-6 advantage prompting GW coach Jojit Coronel to call a timeout. The strategy worked as the Colonials rallied to tie the set at 10-10 on a Stuart kill. GW then seized the momentum with kills by Butz and Stuart and an ace by Yaniga for a 14-12 lead forcing Fordham to burn a timeout. FU's Jenna Hart slammed a kill to bring the Rams to within one at 14-13 but another kill from Hill completed the Colonials' comeback at 15-13.
For the match, Fordham actually out-hit GW, .297 (79-25-182) to .251 (68-23-179) but the Colonials mustered 12 blocks and nine service aces.
Fordham's Christi Griffiths was nearly unstoppable hitting .514 on a match-high 22 kills for 25.5 points. Wells added 20 points on 18 kills and four block assists while Katherine Burrell assisted on 67 kills. Fordham (12-14, 1-6 A-10) also got 17 points on 16 kills and a ace from Kailee May.
The last time GW won six straight matches was the beginning of the 2006 season when it began the year with six straight victories. The Colonials last winning streak of more than six straight was the 2003 season when they began the season by reeling off 10 straight wins.
GW (11-8, 4-3 A-10) next hosts Rhode Island (10-11, 2-5 A-10) in another A-10 match on Sunday at Smith Center beginning at 1:00 p.m. The GW-URI match will be available via live video streaming on www.GWsports.com and GameTracker live stats.
