Saturday, October 16, 2004

(Oct. 16, 2004) - The Lady Bucs volleyball team hosted Southern Conference foe The Citadel in action today at Brooks Gymnasium sweeping the visiting Bulldogs 3-0 for their third conference win of 2004 (30-20, 30-18, 31-29).  With their second consecutive win, ETSU improves to 4-14, 3-5 in conference action for the season, while The Citadel falls to 9-13, 1-7 in SoCon play.

ETSU started the match on fire, taking the quick 13-3 game one lead.  After three straight points behind the service of Jenifer Moore, the Bulldogs managed to near the game at the 18-8 mark.  ETSU finished strong behind the play of Sara Scandiffio (Purcellville, Va.) who led the Lady Bucs in game one with six kills, while setter Brittany Kessel (Libertyville, Ill.) added 16 assists and two service aces during the 30-20 first set win.

ETSU continued to dominate heading into the second game of the afternoon.  The Bulldogs managed to keep the match close until senior outside hitter Karen Freeburg (New Castle, Ind.) served the Lady Bucs to three straight points lengthening the lead to 21-17.  Freshman middle hitter Callie Kiselich (Colorado Springs, Co.) served the final seven points leading ETSU to the 30-18 second game win. 

Through two games, ETSU dominated both the offensive and defensive sides of the net with a combined 34 kills and 5.0 blocks compared to just 23 kills and 2.0 blocks by the Bulldogs.  After the intermission the Bulldogs fought hard in game three taking their biggest lead of the afternoon at the 17-14 mark.  ETSU managed to fight back behind six kills by Scandiffio and three kills each from Jennifer Sartor (Toronto, Canada) and Kelsey Sherich (Ogallala, Neb.) to give the Lady Bucs the 31-29 game three win and the 3-0 match win.

"Today's win was a complete team effort.  We did a great job of limiting errors on our side of the court and we reached the personal goals we set as a team before the match started," head Lady Bucs coach Lindsey Devine said.

For the afternoon, Kessel tallied 45 assists leading ETSU to a .254 hitting percentage for the match.  Scandiffio posted a match-high 13 kills while Sartor was just behind with a total of 12 kills for the afternoon.  Samantha Parisi led The Citadel with 12 kills while Bulldog setter Katie Livingston finished with 31 assists for the afternoon.

ETSU will host College of Charleston when they continue Southern Conference action tomorrow afternoon in Brooks Gymnasium, game time is set for 1:00 pm.