DEARBORN, MI – For the second day in a row, the Cougars Volleyball team split matches in the University of Michigan – Dearborn Invitational. The Cougars lost a close, five-set match 3-2 to St. Catharine in the morning by set scores of 25-23, 12-25, 12-25, 25-22, 14-16, but came back in the afternoon to defeat the host school, U of M – Dearborn in a five-set match 25-20, 25-27, 25-9, 19-25, 15-10.
Against St. Catharine, Rebekah Kujat led the Cougar offense with 16 kills and Emily Verhage added 12 kills.
Lyndsay Murray led Spring Arbor with 20 digs and Alyssa Frees also had 13 digs.
In the afternoon game against U of M – Dearborn, Frees led the attack with 17 kills, Kacy Hersha added 14 and Verhage chimed in with 11 kills.
Murray was all over the court with 33 digs in the five-set victory. Gabby Corwin, Frees, and Tenille Marowelli all combined for 36 digs with 13, 12, and 11 digs respectively.
"I am really excited about where this team is headed," said Head Coach, Carol Gates. "The chemistry of the team and their ability to adapt to changes throughout the matches is encouraging as we find ourselves halfway through preseason play. The focus has been on playing in 'unity' with each other and that is what occurred today with both matches going five sets."
"An evenly spray of offensive attacks from senior setter Tenille Marowelli (103 assists) found four attackers with more than 20 kills on the day: Alyssa Frees (25 kills), Bekah Kujat (23 kills), Emily Verhage (23 kills) and Kacy Hersha (20 kills). It is important for us to have a balanced offensive attack and spread out the responsibility to terminate balls to multiple hitters, in order to keep our opponents out of thier system. Our defensive kept us in many rallies and got great touches on balls all day. Critical to the defensive stand was Lyndsay Murray (53 digs), Alyssa Frees (25 digs) and Gabby Corwin (18 digs).
The Cougars (2-2) will play next weekend in the St. Xavier Invitational in Chicago, IL with two matches each on Friday evening, and Saturday. They face Trinity Christian College on Friday at 4:00 pm, and Mount Mercy University at 6:00 pm.
