Marquette Volleyball Defeats UWM, 3-2

Oct. 20, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Putting an end to their four-match losing streak, the Marquette volleyball team defeated UW-Milwaukee Monday night, 3-2 (25-27, 24-26, 25-11, 25-16, 15-11).

"The cylinders really kicked in after the second game and we all got on the same page," said head coach Pati Rolf. "We got great performances out of our middles and right-sides. Rabbecka Gonyo was tremendous for us."

Leading the Golden Eagles to victory were Rabbecka Gonyo and Leslie Bielski, who both tied career-highs with 18 and 17 kills, respectively. Caryn Mastandrea orchestrated the MU attack with 47 assists, along with a career-high 20 digs. Freshman libero Amy Deelo provided an additional 24 digs, while Gonyo and Tiara Russell tied for the team lead with seven block apiece.

Marquette got off to a slow start in the first two sets, giving the Panthers a fight but ultimately falling after forcing UWM over the 25-point barrier. In the first, UWM took a four point lead on a kill by Natalie Schmitting to put the Panthers up 9-5 before four MU points caused UWM to use their first timeout. Out of the timeout, MU took their first lead of the game at 10-9 on Mastandrea's second straight service ace. From there, UWM took back the lead at 12-10 on a kill by the squad's lone senior, Becky Peters, and led until MU took the lead at 25-24. Three straight UWM points ensued, allowing the Panthers to close out the set at 27-24.

The Golden Eagles fell behind 4-1 early in the match's second set on a service ace by Samantha Trawitzke and never led the rest of the way. MU did tie the score at 24-24 in an attack error by Schmitting but UWM scored the next two points to win the set 26-24.

MU came out of the intermission with their guns blazing, forcing UWM to call timeouts with the score at 6-2 and 12-6. The second UWM timeout was in the midst of a 9-1 MU run which lengthened Marquette's lead to 19-7. The Golden Eagles closed out the scoring in the third frame to take the set 25-11.

The 11 points allowed in the third, tied for the least given up this year by Marquette in one of a match's first four sets. The Golden Eagles also defeated Chattanooga, 25-11, this year in that match's first stanza.

In the third, MU did not have an error leading to a .522 attack percentage, while UWM hit -.152 in the set. Gonyo contributed five kills, while Ashlee Fisher had four and Russell had three. For UWM, Peters hit -.727 in the set, with eight errors coming on 11 total attacks.

"We weren't getting anything going until the blocking really started to open things up in game three," said Rolf. "I credit it to our blockers. Tiara, Katie and Becka really came around."

Marquette got off to another fast start in the fourth, building a 3-1 lead on an ace from Bielski and built the lead to 8-4 on another attack error by Peters. Out of a UWM timeout, MU upped their scoring pace and took a 15-8 lead prior to another UWM timeout. Three errors by Fisher forced MU into a timeout after a 4-1 UWM run. Marquette then responded to take eight of the next 12 points to win the set 25-16 after two straight kills from Gonyo.

Gonyo led the way in the fourth set with six kills and two blocks. Bielski pitched in four kills in the effort and Deelo added 10 digs.

UWM led early in the fifth on a kill from Schmitting before Gonyo hammered home another kill to tie the set at 1-1. With the score tied 5-5, four straight Marquette points, including kills from Bielski and Vancura, forced UWM into two more early timeouts. From there, UWM pulled within two at 12-10 but that was as close as they would get as MU pulled out the set and the match, 15-11.

In the shortened fifth set, Bielsk led the Golden Eagles with five kills and Mastandrea contributed eight assists.

The Golden Eagles (8-11, 2-4 BIG EAST) return to action Friday evening when they welcome the Louisville Cardinals to the Al McGuire Center. Friday's match will be streamed live by Marquette University TV (MUTV) on GoMarquette.com. Live stats will also be available online.