Monday, November 13, 2006

RADFORD, Va. (Nov. 13, 2006) - The ETSU women's volleyball team closed out its regular season Monday evening dropping a heartbreaker in the Dedmon Center. Radford snapped the Lady Bucs school record winning streak at 16 games, as they went on to win a thriller 24-30, 30-22, 30-23, 31-33, 11-15.

The early stages in the first game were tightly contested, until ETSU jumped ahead scoring four straight points to take the lead at 18-14, thanks to strong serving by Kaena Apana (Waianae, Hawaii). However, the lead would not last long for the Lady Bucs as the Highlanders battled to tie the game at 21. From there Radford strung together five straight points as ETSU struggled to stop Radford's attack. The Lady Bucs would cut the margin to back to three at, 26-23, however that is as close at they would get. Radford hit .314 for the game to ETSU's .121.

In game two, the Lady Bucs came out on fire as junior Callie Kiselich (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and senior Jennifer Sartor (Toronto, Canada) combined for 11 kills. Kiselich led the way with seven, including four straight at one point, and Sartor followed up with four. With the score tied at 5, the Lady Bucs took control of the match as they posted a 17-3 run to take a 22-8 lead. Radford tried to string together a late rally, cutting the lead to 24-16. However, the run by ETSU proved to be too strong for the Highlanders as they went on to win, 30-22.

With Radford on top 6-5 in game three, the Lady Bucs put together a strong rally as they won nine of the next 11 points, taking a 14-8 advantage midway throughout the match. Sartor and junior Marissa Mortensen (Elk Grove, Ill.) came up big in the rally as Mortensen served for four straight points and Sartor provided five kills. The Highlanders would cut into the lead by winning the next two points; however Nani Emerson (Tracy, Calif.) stepped up in the clutch with strong serves as she extended the Lady Bucs lead to 18-10. Radford tried to claw its way back into the match, chipping ETSU's lead to 19-15, but that is as close as the Lady Bucs would let them get. ETSU held Radford to a .048 hitting percentage for the game.

There were 10 different ties during game four, and the Radford held the largest advantage at a four points on three separate occasions. After both teams kept on battling, ETSU would get some breathing room as they took a three-point lead, 17-14. The lead did not last long for the Lady Bucs as Radford won 12 of the next 17 points to take its largest lead of the match, 26-22. The Lady Bucs put together a rally of their own by winning nine of the next 13 points and took the lead at 31-30. However, ETSU could not get the match point they were looking for to extend their school record winning streak to 17 straight games, as Radford rallied for the final three points.

Emerson started the Lady Bucs off on the right foot in game five as she served ETSU to three straight points. Then Radford rallied to win eight of the next 11 points, forcing the Lady Bucs to call a timeout with the score 8-6. The timeout looked to be the right call for ETSU, as they tied the game at 9, but Radford then went on to win the next five points and the luck finally ran out for the Lady Bucs.

Sartor led the way for the Lady Bucs with 22 kills and Apana had a Buccaneer best 26 digs for the contest. Radford posted 19 blocks to ETSU's 10, and forced the Lady Bucs to commit 37 errors on the evening.

ETSU will now head to the A-Sun Tournament as the top seed, and will face the winner of the Jacksonville/Gardner-Webb game in the semifinals on Fridday, Nov. 17 at 4:30 p.m. The tournament will be played on Belmont's home floor in Nashville, Tenn.