George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Dayton
Volleyball Drops A-10 Clash with Dayton, 3-1
10/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 3, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC -- After winning the first set, the GW Volleyball team was defeated by Dayton, 3-1, in an A-10 Conference match Friday night at GW's Smith Center. The defending A-10 champion Flyers won by the scores, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 25-18 in one hour, 59 minutes on Volleyball Parents Weekend.
Friday's match began with GW asserting itself after the Flyers had closed to within one at 16-15 on a GW attack error. The Colonials slowly pulled away to build a short-lived 20-17 lead before Dayton rallied to tie the set at 21-21 on another Colonials attack miscue. Kills from GW's Katie Butz and Abby Syverson sandwiched around a UD attack error gave GW a 24-21 lead. The Colonials won the set on a Dayton service error.
The second set was tied at 6-6 before the Flyers took control with a 10-4 run to open up a 16-10 lead powered by a pair of kills from Nicole Bateman. UD outscored GW, 9-4, down the stretch for the easy 25-14 triumph.
Set three was close all the way and tied at 22-22 on a Maggie Wright service ace before Dayton scored the final three points on a kill and ace by Tiffany Gaerke and a GW error.
The fourth set was all Dayton as the Flyers raced out to a 9-3 lead on kills by Bateman and Mandy Robbe along with assorted GW miscues. The Colonials rallied to within 11-10 forcing Dayton to take a timeout. The Flyers came out of the timeout and outscored GW, 14-8, to breeze to the 25-18 victory.
Neither team was partiicularly efficient on offense as Dayton combined to hit .197 (54-24-152) for the match while the Colonials hit just .076 (42-31-145). Both teams did bring their block however, with Dayton amassing 18 total blocks, including eight block assists for both Lindsey Fletemier and Bethany Akerhielm and seven from Becky Novecek. GW, meanwhile, combined to block 10.5 Flyer attacks led by MacKenzie Knox's six block assists.
The Colonials were led by senior Liz Moult with 14 points on 11 kills with five blocks. Unfortunately, she was the only Colonial in double-figure kills. Junior Abby Syverson led GW with a .263 attack percentage while Wright added 21 digs.
Dayton (10-6, 1-0 A-10) was led by Gaerke's 20.5 points on 18 kills and three blocks. Bateman added 18 digs.
The loss was GW's ninth straight to Dayton spanning six years. The Colonials' last victory over the Flyers came on Nov. 22, 2002 in the semifinal round of the 2002 A-10 Tournament at Cincinnati.
GW (6-7, 1-2 A-10) next hosts Xavier (8-7, 1-0) in an A-10 match Sunday at 2 p.m. at Smith Center. Xavier defeated Charlotte, 3-1, Friday in North Carolina. The match will be available on www.GWsports.com GameTracker and live video streaming.
