2008 Woodie Awards
Volleyball remains in PSAC playoff hunt with win over IUP
By David Duke
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Sports
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The win marked the Rock's (23-6 overall, 4-3 PSAC West) fifth in a row and put the team two matches up on Indiana (23-8, 2-5) for the final playoff spot with three divisional games remaining.
Leading the way for the SRU was freshman Anastasia Urbanik with 20 kills and junior Sara Kirsch with 53 assists.
The opening game went back and forth as neither the Rock nor the Indians could put together a point streak to pull away. Finally, with the score knotted at 25, SRU went on a 5-1 run to close the first game, capped off by an Urbanik kill.
Game two saw the Rock never relinquish the lead as it stormed out to a 15-4 advantage featuring a three point scoring streak by junior Katie Greco. SRU extended its lead to its widest margin on the last point of the game at 30-16, setting the tone for the match.
The third and final game featured both teams running off point streaks, but again saw the Rock hold the lead. SRU pushed the lead to 13-5 on an Urbanik kill, but IUP stormed back making the score 14-10. The Rock again extended its lead to 18-11 on a Lindsay Weber ace, but then saw an eight point lead shaved to five at 25-20.
However, the Indians weren't able to pull closer than three at 27-24 as the Rock finished the game, and the match, on a 3-0 run capped off by a Greco kill.
Coach Laurie Lokash saw the victory as impressive and felt believes SRU surprised the visiting Indians.
"I think team played a pretty good, solid match," Lokash said. "I think they came in expecting the same team that played at IUP a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't the same team that stepped on the floor Tuesday night."
The Rock's remaining schedule includes three division games in which they only need to win one along with an IUP loss to clinch a playoff birth.
Lokash said the team needs to remain focused and not look at who they're playing against to stay at the level they are.
There's a lot of parody this year, and any team can give anyone else a match on any given night," Lokash said. "We just need to focus on individual opponents and not change our intensity levels.
The Rock has the weekend off before facing Edinboro next Tuesday at Edinboro, a match Lokash says the team shouldn't overlook.
"Edinboro is an up and coming team," Lokash said. "They surprised IUP and beat them so we need to stay strong and play hard to win the match at their place."
