Toledo Takes 1-0 Decision Over Marshall
The Thundering Herd Faces BGSU Sunday
TOLEDO, Ohio – The Marshall University’s women’s soccer squad fell to the
reigning Mid-American Conference Champion, the University of Toledo, 1-0,
Friday evening, at Scott Park. The Thundering Herd dropped to 2-1-2 while
the Great Lakes Region 15th-ranked Rockets improved to 3-1-0 so far this
season.
“Toledo is a strong and solid soccer team,” Marshall’s interim head coach
Kevin Long said. “This was a good test for us and I felt we responded
well.”
The lone goal of the match came in the 36th minute from a Rachel White
cross to Kristen Lynn.
Sophomore forward Erika Duncan (Easthaven, Scotland) registered two shots,
one on goal. Duncan has taken 13 shots, seven on goal so far this season.
Freshman Angela DeSumma (Doylestown, Pa.) also had two shots, with one
being on goal. The midfielder so far has 10 shots, five on goal this
season.
Forward Molly Snead (Cincinnati, Ohio) tallied two shots, one on goal. The
junior has 12 shots, with nine being on goal so far for the season.
Freshman forward Katie Ball (Louisville, Ky.) recorded one shot, which
improved her season shots to nine with seven being on goal.
The Rockets tallied eight shots, with four being on goal.
Co-captain keeper Liz Orton (Fort Collins, Colo.) stopped three shots in
the loss. The junior has registered 210 saves so far in her three-year
career.
Toledo’s Vicki Traven also had three saves in her 90 minutes of play.
“We weren’t as successful in creating shots like we did last weekend,”
Coach Long added. “But we have another chance for a victory, Sunday.”
With the victory, the Rockets improved its all-time series lead over the
Herd, 7-1, which dates back to 1998.
Marshall will continue its road trip against MAC tournament runner-up,
BGSU, Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Cochrane Field. The Herd and the
Falcons (2-2-2) have met seven times in school history with BGSU leading
4-1-2. The first meeting dates back to the Herd’s inaugural season, which
the orange and brown took a 1-0 victory. The most recent result was in
2004 after a 1-1 draw in overtime at Bowling Green.
GameTracker will be available for Sunday’s match by clicking the Marshall
women’s soccer schedule.
Herd fans can view and purchase photos from the 2008 women’s soccer season
at http://herdsportsphotos.exposuremanager.com/ under “2008 Women’s
Soccer.”
Volleyball Wins Thriller Over WVU, 3-2
Marshall has now won seven straight against the Mountaineers.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Marshall University’s Jalicia Ross (Bank Village,
Trinidad)
blasted a team-best 16 kills and Taylor Tanner (Union, Ky.) notched a
career-best 21
digs to lift the Thundering Herd to a thrilling 3-2 (23-25, 25-18, 23-25,
25-16,
15-9) victory over in-state rival West Virginia in Friday night’s
non-conference
volleyball match.
With the win, Marshall improves to 5-3 overall and has won its last seven
contests
with West Virginia. The Mountaineers fall to 2-5 on the season with the loss.
“Our goal was to retain the golden ball,” head coach Mitch Jacobs said
following the
win. “A glaring weakness for us is that we still haven’t won a two-point
set, but
credit our women for hanging in there down 2-1. We played very well in set
four, and
we knew that if we could get that eighth point to switch sides in the
fifth set we’d
win the match.”
With the match even at two sets apiece, Marshall took an 8-5 lead in the
deciding
set and scored five of the next seven to extend that lead to 13-7. Kills
by Kristin
Marcum (Arlington, Texas) and Emily Sullivan (Cincinnati, Ohio) sealed the
set and
match for the Herd.
In the first set, Marshall and West Virginia battled to 10 ties and a
14-14 score
before the Mountaineers took a 16-14 lead. The Herd received three Ross
kills and
one by Marcum over the course of the next six points to post a 20-19 lead,
before
West Virginia knotted the frame at 20-20. A kill by Elizabeth Fleming
(South Bend,
Ind.) brought the stanza to yet another stalemate at 21-21. The teams tied
for the
16th time at 22-22 before West Virginia scored three of the next four
points to
claim the set 25-23 and a 1-0 lead in the match.
Marshall got off to a fast start in the second frame, building an 8-4
advantage on
the strength of a solo block by Elizabeth Herman (Dunwoody, Ga.), an
assisted block
by Ross and Marcum and a service ace by Carlson. West Virginia cut the
lead to 8-6
before the Herd scored six of the next eight points to take a 14-8 lead
capped by an
assisted block from Layne Kehl (Mountain Top, Pa.) and Sullivan. The
Mountaineers
were able to claw back to bring the score to 16-12 before scoring five
unanswered
points to take a 17-16 lead. From there, Marshall used its own 7-1 run to
extend its
lead to 24-17, highlighted by an assisted block from Ross and Megan Carlson
(Andover, Minn.), a Carlson kill three consecutive service aces by Carlson
and an
assisted block from Fleming and Ross. The set ended on a service error by
West
Virginia.
“Set two had to be one of the strangest sets in volleyball history,”
Jacobs said.
“To out block and out ace the number of kills you have really says
something about
rally scoring.”
With the match even at one set apiece, West Virginia scored opened up a
7-3 lead
before a kills by Ross and Marcum brought the Herd to within two at 7-5.
After
battling to within one at 12-11, Marshall tied the frame with a Marcum
kill. Marcum
was able to break a 13-13 deadlock, before she teamed with Kehl on a block
to extend
the Herd lead to 15-13. The Herd used a 4-1 run to increase its lead to
18-14 before
a five straight points gave West Virginia the lead back at 19-18. The
Mountaineers
then registered three of the next four points to take a 22-19 lead before
a kill by
Carlson and Ross got Marshall to within two at 23-21. Following a
Mountaineer kill,
Ross delivered again with a kill and then teamed with Marcum on a block to
get to
within one at 24-23, before a West Virginia kill sealed the set and a 2-1
edge in
the contest.
Trailing 2-1 in the match, Marshall took a 13-9 lead in fourth frame and
extended
its lead to as many as six by posting a 17-11 lead before the Mountaineers
cut it
back to four at 18-14. Marshall scored five of the next seven points on
the strength
of kills from Fleming and Sullivan and a service ace by Fleming to bring
the stanza
to 23-16. The Herd then took the set and tied the contest on a West Virginia
attacking error and a Marcum service ace.
Ross finished with a .615 hitting percentage, totaling 16 kills on 26
attempts with
no errors in the win. Marcum finished with 13 kills and 14 digs, while
Sullivan
notched 11 kills on the night. Carlson chipped in with 16 digs while
Fleming handed
out 45 assists and recorded 10 digs.
“I thought holding West Virginia to negatives was huge for our defense
because it’s
something we’ve been working hard on,” Jacobs stated. “Overall it was an
excellent
match. I thought Carlson was our best defensive player, and Taylor stepped
up in a
huge way. She has been nothing but a team player ever since she got here.”
The Herd out blocked the Mountaineers 12.0-1.0 in addition to collecting
11 service
aces (including five from Carlson) in the winning effort.
Marshall returns to action Tuesday, Sept. 16 when it travels to Oxford,
Ohio for a
non-conference clash with Miami (Ohio). Match-time is slated for 6:00 p.m.
