University of Delaware Athletics
Lawrence?s Career Night Gives Delaware Volleyball a 3-1 Victory over VCU and a CAA Weekend Sweep
10/15/2011 5:08:00 PM | Volleyball
RICHMOND, Va. - - Finding its stride at the right time, the University of Delaware volleyball team swept a Colonial Athletic Association weekend on the road, defeating Virginia Commonwealth University, 3-1, on Saturday night at the Siegel Center.
Set scores for the match were 25-19, 25-15, 21-25 and 25-19.
Chelsea Lawrence (above right) led the Blue Hens (12-11, 5-2 CAA) with a career night offensively. Delaware snapped VCU's (9-13, 3-4 CAA) four-match win streak and moved into a tie for first place atop the CAA standings in the process.
Northeastern, James Madison and Delaware all hold a 5-2 CAA record, but Delaware holds the tiebreaker over each team having defeated both the Huskies and the Dukes earlier this season.
Lawrence finished with a career best 18 kills and only needed 29 swings to reach the mark. She made one error on the night, hitting .586 for the match. Her previous career-high was 12 kills against Temple last season.
Renee Tomko (below right) set a four-game career best 51 assists, dishing out all but five of Delaware's helpers on the night. She also added 12 digs to earn her team leading 12th double-double on the season.
Katie Hank added 15 kills to an offense that held the advantage over the Rams, 62-45, in that category. Alissa Alker bounced back from a couple down matches statistically, finishing with her ninth double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs.
Kim Stewart had her three consecutive double-doubles snapped, but led the back row with 16 digs for the match. Libero Cara Rosehill was the final Blue Hen with double digit digs, collecting 13.
Tied at 18-18 in the first set, Delaware went on a five point run to take the lead for good. VCU used both timeouts during the run that saw Hank, Evans and Stewart pick up kills. Stewart added a solo block on Courtney Hott as well. An attack error on the home team gave Delaware the set, 25-19.
The second set was all Delaware as they used spurts of three or more points on three different occasions. The set started off with a set high four-point run for the Blue Hens. Back-to-back kills by Lawrence and Alker gave the visitors a 23-14 lead before Hank finished off the second game with a kill.
The Rams got off to a better start in game three, but the Blue Hens fought back to tie the game at 8-8. But tied at 9-9, a service error by Rosehill gave VCU its final lead it would need for the game. They extended the lead to as many as four, keeping UD at an arm's length. Anett Farkas kept VCU in the match with a kill, ending the game 25-21.
Battling back and forth early in the fourth game, a key run would eventually give Delaware the set and the match. Trailing 11-10, three errors by the Rams and kills by Karina Evans and Hank ended a five-point run to give the Hens the lead for good. Now leading 19-17, three more kills from Lawrence over a four-point run gave Delaware a 23-17 lead. Hank gave UD match point and an attack error by Kristin Boyd ended things, 25-19.
Boyd led all hitters with 22 kills on the night, taking 52 swings. She was the lone Ram in double digits. Ciara Brown and Ceclia Aragao had 21 and 19 assists, respectively, while Amanda Friday led five Rams in double figure digs with 20.
Delaware returns to Newark for its longest home stand of the season starting next Friday, October 21. The Hens will play five consecutive matches on Viera Court, beginning with Georgia State on Friday at 7 p.m.
AGATE:
Delaware def. Virginia Commonwealth, 3-1 (25-19, 25-15, 21-25, 25-19)
Delaware (kills-assists-digs): Hank (15-0-5); Tomko (1-51-12); Stewart (9-2-16); Alker (13-2-13); Lawrence (18-0-2); Evans (6-0-2); Rosehill (0-1-13); Reigel (0-0-0); Walton (0-0-7).
VCU: Low (0-0-15); Hott (4-0-2); Waters (2-0-1); Aragao (2-19-10); Ojukwu (4-0-0); Boyd (22-0-13); Brown (2-21-2); Friday (0-2-20); Farkas (9-0-1); Love (0-1-12); Sykes (0-0-0).
Total Team Blocks: Delaware 6, VCU 9.5
