Sept. 2, 2011
Box Score
VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Villanova volleyball team (2-2) opened the Big 5 Tournament with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-14) sweep of La Salle at The Palestra on Friday afternoon.
Junior Morgan Petkovich led the offense with 17 kills and no errors to hit for a .472 clip. Sophomore Allison Williams connected on seven kills and hit .417. Freshman Allie DiBernardo dished out a match-high 31 assists.
On the defensive end sophomore Mariah Henley collected 12 digs and senior Kim Maroon added 10. Classmate Maria Nolan put up eight blocks in the match.
After trailing in the first set, Petkovich smashes a kill to pull within one point, 10-9, which sends La Salle into a timeout. Following the break an error from the Explorers ties the set at 10-10. An ace from Petkovich gave the Wildcats their first lead, 15-14 and an ace from junior CeCe Twitty extended the lead to 18-16. La Salle called its final timeout with the Wildcats holding on to a 22-18 lead and Nolan found the floor for a kill to win the first set, 25-19.
Williams connected on back-to-back kills to give Villanova a 7-6 lead in the second frame. The Explorers used their first timeout after committing consecutive errors, while `Nova held on to a 13-11 lead. Williams served an ace out of the break and Petkovich found the floor to extend the lead to 15-12. Nolan and sophomore Carly Edwards combined for a block to keep an 18-14 advantage as La Salle called its final timeout. Junior Krista Andersen smashed a kill for a 21-18 lead and freshman Ally Moskitis launched an ace to extend it to 23-18. Petkovich hit the final kill to give the Wildcats a 25-19 victory. Williams recorded five kills with no errors in the frame, while Petkovich put down four kills.
Nova came out to a 6-0 lead in the third stanza on serving from Williams and La Salle took its first timeout trailing 7-0. Nolan sneaked a kill by for an 8-1 advantage and combined with Edwards for a block and pushed the lead to 10-3. Twitty smashed a kill and Petkovich followed with an ace as the Wildcats led 17-7 forcing La Salle to burn its final timeout. Edwards and Nolan teamed up for a block to keep Villanova in front, 22-12 and a kill from Williams gave the Wildcats the match victory with a 25-14 victory in the final set.
The Wildcats combined to hit .317 as a squad and held La Salle to just a .125 hitting percentage.
Villanova will be back in action on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. to face Temple before taking on host school Penn at 7:00 p.m.
