Oct. 30, 2004
Box Score
VILLANOVA, Pa. - The visiting Orange took advantage of a superior attack and strong blocking, and swept Villanova (7-15, 1-5 BIG EAST) 3-0 Saturday at Nevin Field House. Syracuse (21-5, 4-1 BE) won its eighth straight match and defeated the Wildcats by scores of 30-19, 30-25 and 30-23.
The Orange hit .356 in the first game to set the tone for the match, and wound up hitting .266 for the match and recording 12.0 team blocks. Those numbers for too much for Villanova to overcome, as the Wildcats made 23 hitting errors and had just two blocks.
Junior Dana Kabashima (Santa Monica, Calif.) paced Villanova with 11 kills and 19 digs, while freshman Kacy Sellers (Battle Creek, Mich.) and sophomore Adrian Semrau (Grafton, Ohio) contributed 10 kills apiece.
Morgan Jones led Syracuse with a .389 hitting percentage and 16 kills, while Kelly Duan added 14 kills, 20 digs and six blocks. Aila Dommestrup totaled 47 assists to go along with five kills and seven digs, and Jen Malcom notched a team-high eight blocks.
The Orange made only 16 hitting errors in the match, but were prevented from hitting for an even higher percentage by a strong Villanova defense that racked up 63 digs, including a team-high 22 from junior Celine Nguyen (Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif.). However, Syracuse used the height of its front line to stymie the Wildcat blockers. The Orange pulled away from close scores towards the end of all three games to get the win.
Villanova, which was the last BIG EAST team to play a conference match at home, wraps up its three-match homestand against Notre Dame on Sunday at 1 p.m.
NOTES: The Wildcats had been 5-0 on their home court this season, and 13-2 at home dating to the middle of the 2003 campaign ... Nguyen surpassed 20 digs in a match for the 10th time in her career and the fifth time in her last eight matches ... She is averaging nearly six digs per game in six conference matches ... Villanova players honored their parents on the court before the match as part of "Parents Day" festivities ... The day also included a reception following the match.
