Sept. 4, 2009
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - In the first annual Philadelphia Big 5 Tournament, the Villanova Volleyball team defeated La Salle, 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-13, 25-16), at the Palestra on Penn's campus on Friday afternoon. The Wildcats improve to 5-0 on the season with the victory.
Sophomore Maggie Mergen led the way offensively with 19 kills, just two errors and a .586 hitting percentage. Fellow sophomore Morgan Petkovich posted 15 kills, also with just two errors.
Three Wildcats notched double figure digs with sophomore Kim Maroon collecting 20, while freshman Krista Andersen added 16 and senior Amy Gulyas posted 14. Senior Chelsea Graman gave out 47 assists in the match.
Villanova had a dominant serving match combining for 11 service aces as Andersen added four and Mergen three.
In the first set, Villanova started slow, but responded to pull away as Mergen tallied six kills with no errors in the set. The Wildcats hit .387 combined with just one error, while La Salle was .257 as a team as the `Cats earned the 25-18 victory.
`Nova was out-hit in the second frame as the Explorers combined to hit .300, while holding VU to just .186 with eight errors. La Salle took a quick 4-3 lead that extended to 9-3 before the Wildcats closed the gap to 14-10 after a kill from Petkovich. The Explorer's would not trail to close out the set, though VU crept to within one point, 21-20 after Mergen served an ace, La Salle kept in front to win, 25-22.
The Wildcats got back their offense in the third set dominating the Explorers by holding them to just .065 as a team in the set, while hitting .346 themselves. La Salle got on the board first, but after a quick 3-3 tie, the `Cats jumped out to a 15-9 advantage forcing La Salle to call timeout. Mergen connected on a kill and Andersen served an ace after the break to increase the lead to 17-9 before giving the serve back to the Explorers. Villanova gave up just four more point en route to the 25-13 set victory.
In the fourth frame, the Wildcats jumped to an early 7-2 lead on kills from Mergen and Andersen who hit six and five kills respectively in the set. La Salle called its first timeout trailing 14-7, but scored just four more points before using its last timeout still down, 22-11. The Explorers rallied to hit three unanswered points before giving the serve back to VU on a service error. Andersen connected on a kill to set `Nova up for match point and freshman CeCe Twitty slammed the winning kill on an assist from Andersen to win the set, 25-16.
The Wildcats return to The Palestra to continue the Big 5 Tournament on Saturday as they face Temple at 1:30 p.m. and host squad Penn at 7:00 p.m.
