Kansas City
Louisiana-Monroe
Kangaroos Win Second Straight In 3-0 Sweep Of Louisiana-Monroe
9/13/2008 5:15:00 PM | Volleyball
Monroe, La. -- The UMKC volleyball team won its second straight match on Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 sweep of host Louisiana-Monroe at the ULM Warhawk Classic. Playing just 30 minutes after their 3-2 win over SE Louisiana, the Kangaroos went on the top the Warhawks by the scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-15.
UMKC opened the match strong by jumping out to a 6-3 lead in the first set behind kills by Mandy Tipton, Brittany Fossier and Kelly Gettinger. ULM fought back to take the 9-8 lead before the Kangaroos scored five of six points to grab a 13-10 advantage. The three-point lead was the largest of the set for UMKC, as the Warhawks continued battling. Trailing by a point at 20-19, freshmen Kate Humphreys tied the score at 20 before fellow freshman Christiana McQuin put the Kangaroos on top with a service ace. The squad then held on to win the set, 25-23.
The two teams continued battling to start the second set, as the score was tied eight times through the first 18 points. With the score nine all, the Kangaroos reeled off three point to take a 12-9, but ULM fought back to even the score at 15 and 16 all. UMKC again stretched its margin to three points at 19-16 behind a Tipton kill, but ULM again battled to even the tally at 19. Back-to-back kills by Elizabeth Beck and Fossier then put the Kangaroos up two. Following a UMKC service error, the Kangaroos scored the final five points to take the set, 25-20. The team finished with 15 kills and a .333 hitting percentage in the set.
UMKC started the third set strong by getting out to 5-1 and 9-4 leads. Two Kate Humphreys kills then keyed a 6-2 run to make the score 15-6. The Kangaroos eventually pushed the margin to 10 points (22-12) before going on to the easy 25-15 victory.
UMKC finished with 42 kills, and it matched a season-high with a .295 hitting percentage, while ULM had 27 kills and a .140 clip. Fossier led all players with a match and career-high 12 kills, and she finished with a .400 hitting clip in the match. Senior Danni Sperry, meanwhile, had 20 assists and seven digs.
The Kangaroos finished second in the tournament after it posted a 2-1 overall record on the weekend. UMKC's Erin Wellwood was named to the all-tournament second team after tallying 45 assists and 14 digs on the weekend.
UMKC (4-8) will return to action on Friday, Sept. 19 at Oakland in its Summit League opener.
