Volleyball on the road

By Mike Petty
Collegian Staff
October 11, 2006

The La Salle volleyball team took on city rival Penn on Tuesday, as the Palestra took a break from round ball and featured volleyball for the night.

The struggles for the Explorers continued as they dropped the match, 3-0. A non-conference game for La Salle saw the team play well in the first game, but progressively struggle as the match continued.

The Explorers played well in the first game but fell in the end, 30-25. The second (30-20) and third (30-16) games were solid but unspectacular games for Penn as they knocked off the Explorers.

Juniors Erin Sullivan and Stephanie Owen matched each other with seven kills apiece and sophomore Amy McKeon added six of her own. Senior Caitlin Conner assisted on 23 of the team’s 33 kills. Senior Carolyn Judge had a match high 12 digs, but the Quakers were just too much for La Salle.

The squad spent the weekend in the midwest to take on Xavier and Dayton. Xavier was on the docket first as they met up on Friday night. The match was played in the beautiful Cintas Center, but unfortunately the outcome wasn’t as pretty.

Xavier dominated in a match that lasted just 88 minutes, as La Salle was once again swept, 30-21, 30-12 and 30-19. Owen, McKeon and sophomore Christa Dominick led the team with six kills each. Conner had 21 assists on 25 team kills and Judge finished with a team high 12 digs.

The final match of the weekend saw La Salle take on the Dayton Flyers who came in undefeated in the A-10. Earlier this season, Dayton knocked off #18 Arizona, and in the A-10, they had yet to lose even a single game, let alone a match.

The first game was all Flyers, as they won 30-15. It looked as if the Explorers would be no match for the A-10’s premiere team.

Coach Dave Stever looked for a spark plug between games and he found it in freshman Rachel Stemper, who finished with an unbelievable match high 17 kills and a .412 hitting percentage.

“I was very happy with the opportunity that I was given and the end result,” Stemper said. “I would not have been able to do any of it without my team. We just had amazing serve receive, very consistent sets and great block coverage. It was just so much fun to be out there on the court enjoying every point we scored over the Flyers.”

Using Stemper, Owen (11 kills, 11 digs), Conner (42 assists) and Judge (25 digs), the Explorers pulled off the amazing upset in game two, 30-27.

The third (30-23) and fourth (30-22) games went to the Flyers, and they won the match 3-1. But the Explorers came out feeling like winners, having done something no other A-10 team has done this season.

“Now all we need to do is carry this newfound energy over to our upcoming matches,” Stemper said. “I think we learned a lot from this match. We learned that if we play to win, we are very successful and can actually compete with some very good teams. We need to remain aggressive through the entire match. We need to remember that it is fun to win, and remember the great feeling of accomplishment we felt after we took a game off Dayton.”

La Salle returns home this week to take on the Charlotte 49ers and the George Washington Colonials at the Tom Gola Arena.

pettym1@lasalle.edu