Women's Volleyball 8/27/2011 4:09:00 AM SUU Strategic Communication

SUU Volleyball Drops Two on Day One of Crystal Inn Thunderbird Invitational

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Aug. 26 - Southern Utah University's unbeaten streak in season openers came to an end on Friday as SUU dropped both opening games at the Crystal Inn Thunderbird Invitational. The T-Birds suffered losses of 3-1 to Drake and a nightcap defeat of 3-0 to Boise State.

SUU had opened its previous two seasons of 2009 and 2010 with 3-0 sweeps over Delaware State and Murray State, respectively.

"We have a lot of new people on our team this year," head coach Debby Baker said. "We just haven't clicked yet and are having a hard time connecting in our offense. We'll get better."

Southern Utah began the day hosting Drake University and out hit the Bulldogs on the day .123 to .087, splitting the first two sets 22-25 and 25-19. The Thunderbirds were up in the third set by as much as five, 21-16, before Drake closed out the set on a 9-2 run to take the frame away from the 'Birds 25-23.

The momentum shift carried over into the fourth set as the Bulldogs built a lead of six, 14-8. Southern Utah then began to chip away at the lead and tied the game at 22-22 on a Kylie Schofield kill, but it was the final point that the Thunderbirds would tally as Drake closed out the set and match, 25-22.

Schofield and Analaine Mailoto led the T-Bird attack with 14 and 12 kills, respectively as Mikayla Sims paced Drake with a team-best ten kills. Southern Utah's achilles' heel during the night was behind the service line as the Thunderbirds committed 11 service errors during the match.

The T-Birds never could find a rhythm in the night game against the Boise State Broncos. The hot-hitting BSU team was hard to beat, hitting .522 in the second set and .409 in the third set while holding Southern Utah to just .033 hitting during the match.

The lopsided totals led to a 25-17, 25-11, 25-11 defeat for Southern Utah with the Thunderbirds falling to 0-2 on the year.

The Thunderbirds will be back in action on Saturday with games against the University of the Pacific at 12:30 pm and Utah State at 7:00 pm. Live stats and a live video feed are anticipated to be available online for both games at www.suutbirds.com.

Other matches on the day
Game 1 - Pacific 3, Boise State 2

The University of the Pacific took the opening sets 25-22 and 25-23 before Boise State came back to take the third and fourth set, 25-23 and 25-21, to force a decided fifth set. The Broncos struggled to find their attack, hitting -.059 in the frame while the Tigers used three kills each by Samantha Misa and Megan Birch to take the set and match 15-10.

Game 3 - Pacific 3, Utah State 0

The University of the Pacific used the momentum that it gained in its morning victory to dispatched the Utah State Aggies in three sets, 25-13, 25-18 and 25-17. The Tigers used a trio of double-digit hitters to capture the victory with Samantha Misa, Hannah Levanen and Jennifer Sanders each logging 11 kills during the match.

Print Friendly Version