Nov. 14, 1999

Villanova, Pa. ? The Villanova women?s volleyball team hosted Big East rival Syracuse University today in the last game of the 1999 season for the Wildcats. On the day that Villanova honored senior setter Stacey Moline (Sagle, Idaho) for her fine career, the ?Cats fought hard, but eventually dropped the match in five games to the visitors. Scores of the games were 12-15, 15-11, 7-15, 15-7, and 15-4. With the loss, Villanova wraps up its year with a 9-21 overall mark and an 0-11 record in the Big East.

The first game showed that the ?Cats came ready to play as they took an early 3-0 lead. The teams would battle to an 11-11 tie, but ?Nova pushed the score to 14-12 and won the game when freshman Leah Mathews (Poway, Calif.) had her serve returned wide and out of bounds.

Villanova opened game two with a 7-2 lead, but this game was another tight one as the squads were deadlocked at 8-8. Syracuse went on an 11-2 run that proved too much for the home team, however, and the match was tied at 1-1.

Game three was Villanova strongest performance of the afternoon as they built a 14-7 lead. Sophomore Dana Jones (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) spiked it off of the Syracuse blocker and out of bounds for the win, giving ?Nova a 2-1 advantage on the day.

The visitors would not relent as they used a 9-3 run to open up the fourth stanza and take it convincingly 15-7, sending the match into the deciding fifth set for only the second time of season for Villanova in conference play.

The fifth game was all Syracuse as the Orange started it off with a commanding 5-0 lead. The ?Cats fought back to close the margin to 6-3, but the visitors pulled away and took the game 15-4.

Leaders on the day for Villanova included Moline with 53 assists and junior Breen Eddinger (Tacoma, Wash.) with 23 kills. Eddinger finishes the year with a team-leading 432 kills, while Moline?s performance today put her over the 1,000-assist mark for the season.