Coming off a second place finish in the SMU Invitational, thewomen’s volleyball team traveled to Cal-State Northridgewhere it again finished second at the Fremont Investment and LoanInvitational.
In its opening match of the tournament, the team needed fourgames to dismiss Cornell by a score of 30-19, 30-21, 28-30,30-25.
“Against Cornell we were playing really well as ateam,” junior middle blocker Kelly Larkan said. “Ourteam chemistry was great.”
Larkan led the Mustangs to victory with 17 kills. Senior outsidehitter Beth Karasek followed with 15 kills, and senior outsidehitter Jacky Niederstadt had 10.
Junior middle blocker Ashley Zener led both teams with nineblocks, and junior setter Jessica Mihm matched her best assisttotal of the season with 50.
In its second match of the tournament, the team had an easiertime with UNLV. The Mustangs dispatched the Lady Rebels in threestraight games (30-25, 30-25, 30-24). SMU led by at least 10 pointsat one time during each game.
Niederstadt led the team in kills against UNLV with 16. Mihm hadfour kills, 11 digs, and an ace while Karasek contributed 16 digs.Larkan finished with 12 kills and nine digs.
In the final against Cal-State Northridge, the team was not ableto overcome a two-game deficit despite stretching the match to fivegames.
“Going into the fifth game, we were confident and we hadthe momentum,” Larkan said. “We just let it get awayfrom us.
We made a couple of mistakes at crucial times.”
In a match that lasted two hours and 45 minutes, the Mustangsfell 27-30, 36-38, 31-29 33-31, 11-15. Three out of the five gameswent to extra points, and the Mustangs were successful in winningtwo of those games.
Larkan said that Cal-State Northridge “is a really goodteam” and was not too disappointed with the team’sresult.
In the match, Mihm set an SMU with record with 88 assists andalso added 15 digs. Niederstadt finished with 28 kills, followed byKarasek and Larkan with 24 and 21, respectively.
“We’re really proud of how we played over theweekend,” Larkan said. “It showed us that we need towork on some things especially blocking.”
With the second place finish at Northridge, the Mustangs recordis 4-2.
The team was scheduled to head to New Orleans this weekend toparticipate in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic hosted by Tulane, butwith the threat of Hurrican Ivan looming, the meet has beencancelled. The team will now host Miami (FL) and LSU and one moreteam that is yet to be determined this weekend at Moody Coliseum.Game times have not yet been determined.
