Oct. 29, 2010

Box Score| Post Match Interview

ROCHESTER, Mich. - Junior Jenna Lange had 15 kills, six blocks and hit .438 as the Oakland University volleyball team (14-12, 9-5 Summit) knocked off the league leader, IPFW (17-9, 11-3 Summit) 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 14-25, 25-22) Friday night at the Athletics Center O'Rena.

"I thought both teams came out and played really well tonight," said head coach Rob Beam. "We had just the one match this week, so we were able to concentrate on how we were going to play them. We were able to get up 2-0 and then IPFW made some nice adjustments. We really had to battle to take the fourth set and the match."

In the opening set, IPFW went out to an early 8-5 lead. Oakland came back with a 5-1 run, taking a 10-9 lead on a block by junior Allison Bell and Lange. The teams traded points until it was 17-17.

Sophomore Meghan Bray smacked the ball down the middle to make it 18-17. The Golden grizzlies would not lead by more than two but never lost the lead. At 23-22, sophomore Brittany Holbrook found the back corner and junior Ashley Nevelle picked up an ace to end the set.

OU controlled the second set for the early going, staking out a 17-10. The Mastodons rallied themselves and went on an 8-4 run. Tessa McGill bounced the ball off a block to make it 21-18. Oakland closed the set on a 4-1 run, with Holbrook and freshman Audrey Wilson stuffing Taryn Parker to take the set, 25-19.

In the third set, the two squads battled on even terms to 8-8. IPFW then scored five straight points to make it 13-8. The Golden Grizzlies got a kill from Bell and a block from Bray and Holbrook to make it 13-10. The Mastodons would score five straight points to effectively end the set.

In the fourth set, Oakland appeared to be in command with a 19-15 lead. IPFW said not so fast and scored three straight points to make it 19-18. The Golden Grizzlies built the lead to 23-19.

The Mastodons forced an error, got a block and a kill and all of a sudden, it was 23-22, OU. Oakland got a break when IPFW served the ball out of bounds. The Mastodons then blasted the ball on a middle hit, but Holbrook and Nevelle were there with the match ending block assist.

For Oakland, Bray had 17 kills and 11 digs and Bell had 11 kills, two service aces and four blocks. Nevelle came up with 46 assists and 15 digs while Holbrook had nine kills and five blocks. Senior Brittany Dunn had 24 digs, her 23rd straight double-digit performance. She now has 1,365 digs, 14th best in Summit League history.

"I was really up for this match, as I knew it was important," said Lange. "We've had an awesome week of practice. We felt like we could play with them and we did."

For IPFW, Alli Hook and Maya Schlindwein had 14 kills each, Megan Steenhuysen had 49 assists and Jen Milligan collected 18 digs.

Oakland is back in action, Nov. 5, taking on IUPUI in the O'Rena. The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and Live Stats can be found at http://www.ougrizzlies.com/

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