Nov. 1, 2008
Box Score
ROCHESTER, Mich. - Despite an eight-kill effort by senior Amy Golem, and a seven-kill effort by sophomore Jenna Lange, the Oakland University volleyball team (6-18, 3-9 Summit League) were unable to overcome a solid offensive effort from Oral Roberts as the Golden Eagles took a 3-0 victory over OU on Saturday night at the Athletics Center O'Rena.
Oakland led early in all three sets, but ORU rallied to take 25-22, 28-26, and 25-21 victories to seal the match sweep. "We played great at the opening of every set," said head coach Rob Beam. "The process that we're in is all about learning how to win at a high level and when the score was tight, Oral Roberts played really well. I give them a lot of credit. I think this is going to be a great learning experience for our team knowing well that we can compete with the top teams in The Summit League, as well as build leads on them. We just have to learn how to finish it off at the end of a set."
The Golden Grizzlies' offensive effort was paced by setters Samantha Filipek and Katy Wilson. Filipek led OU with 17 assists, while Wilson dished out 18.
"I felt like our setting was good again tonight," said Beam. "Their team is a little bit bigger and they play good defense and I think that affects our offensive numbers to some degree. I loved our offense in the first two sets. It was certainly good enough to win those sets, we just need to execute down the stretch."
Senior Lauren Duquette tallied 18 digs to deal OU, while Wilson capped off a double-double performance with 10 digs.
The Golden Grizzlies will return to action Tuesday, Nov. 4, as they travel to Mt. Pleasant, Mich. to face Central Michigan in OU's final non-conference game of the year. OU will conclude the road portion of its schedule this coming weekend at South Dakota State (Friday) and North Dakota State (Saturday), finishing the season at home Nov. 14 and 15 against Western Illinois and IUPUI.
"I like our schedule a lot. We're in a good rhythm, we're playing good volleyball, and the things we've been training are really paying off," said Beam. "To get to go play three great matches in a row is a really good opportunity for us. (CMU) is one of the leaders in the MAC and we'd like to go up there and get an upset win, and then we go on the road to North Dakota State and South Dakota State, and we kind of expect to do the same thing. Our team has been great on the road this year and I feel good going into the weekend."
-30-