Senior Night Success for Volleyball on Tuesday; Claim 3-1 Win over Southwestern Adventist
IRVING, Texas – It was a fun night for the University of Dallas volleyball team, as four seniors took the court a final time in the Maher Center. Dallas (12-14) won 3-1 to Southwestern Adventist University to complete a 4-1 record at home this season. That stretch includes the Crusaders winning 5-of-6 matches.
Among the quartet of seniors for UD included: Anna Fazio (Beaumont, Texas), Allison Seager (Dallas, Texas), Jessie Koster (Sherwood, Ore.), and Mairin Guilfoyle (Roanoke, Texas). All started and made impacts on the court in this triumph.
Set Scores: W 3-1 | (4-25, 19-25, 25-18, 14-25)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Guilfoyle knocked down two kills with the first three points of an opening Crusaders' run. This ignited the home crowd and sent Dallas on an early 8-2 scoring stretch. Guilfoyle added another kill while Merit Paramo (Wasilla, Alaska) also smacked a pair during the outburst. UD maintained the momentum throughout hitting a .583 (15-24) kill percentage.
After an early timeout by the guests, Camille Fraser stopped posted a kill to cut the margin to five. However, a stretch of five unanswered points that started with a kill by Fazio and ended on consecutive positive attacks by Diana Hassink (Tulsa, Okla.) lifted the home side to its largest advantage of the frame by double-digits (13-3). Hassink hit her third hill in a row after another timeout, and then an attack error from UD interrupted that run before 11 straight points closed an early Crusader lead.
Southwestern Adventist allowed the first pair of points in the second set, which started on a service ace from Sarah Hughes (Fair Oaks, Calif.) and kill from Kyndal Miller (Crockett, Texas). The Knights evened the deficit with the next two points and then UD countered with four in a row. It was a short-lived edge, as the Knights chipped away again and led for the first time that evening on a kill from Romi Strand (9-8). The next play, a service error knotted the board back and it was all Dallas the next stretch of 12 points. UD would go on an 11-1 run to take control of the second set. This span included a trio of aces in a row by Seager that helped the lead extend to 17-10 at the time. After a kill by Hughes, Seager served another ace to wrap her four on the night and complete a 19-10 edge. The largest lead of the night would be 11 (24-13), but SWAU closed the set on a 6-0 spurt before an attack error wrapped up a 2-0 edge for UD.
The Knights took advantage of this momentum and broke out to a five point lead to start the third (8-3). The Crusaders brought the gap to within one (9-8), but an 8-2 scoring swing on the board prevented a straight set sweep on the home team's floor.
Dallas found the hot touch again in the fourth set, and wrapped up the victory by starting out on an 8-1 run. That lead ballooned to double-digits as UD scored 12 of the first 14 points.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- Dallas hit a .248 kill percentage overall on the night. Besides the huge first set, the Crusaders matched .233-clips in the second and fourth.
- Guilfoyle claimed a double-digit kill total on her senior night with 10. She was part of trio of players with three blocks. The other two were Miller and Paramo.
- Miller was just behind the game-high leader in kills with nine. Hassink collected all five of her kills in the first set. She matched Paramo and Kennedy Bradley (Groesbeck, Texas) with quintet totals.
- Defensively, Fazio led the way with a personal best 16 digs. That is first double figure performance in that column since September 6, 2004, against Pomona-Pitzer College with 10. Seager added the other double figure result in that column with 12.
- The senior tandem of Fazio and Seager each matched four aces and helped the team boast 10, which was the 5th time this year that UD broke the 10 mark plateau. This is the first time since Sept. 17 against Austin College that the team managed to achieve that many aces.
- Elizabeth Smith (Broken Arrow, Okla.) led the team in assists with 31.
- Her counterpart setter for the Knights, Strand, notched 19.
- SWAU compiled 28 kills compared to 48 by Dallas. Individually the knights were led offensively by Fraser with eight. Eboni Smith posted seven and Courtney Garcia followed with six.
UP NEXT
Dallas gears up for a final weekend before hopefully going to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) tournament in two weeks at Shreveport, Louisiana. The Crusaders play their second cross-over of the year at host school Schreiner University on October 22-23. UD will oppose top 25-ranked Southwestern University and Trinity University. Texas Lutheran University and Schreiner will also oppose Dallas at some point during the slate.
