Lady Cardinals surpass last year's conference win total

by Jason Wolverton
Vanguard Editor-in-Chief

September 18, 2006 —

After victories over Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan Friday and Saturday, the SVSU volleyball team was unable to keep its momentum going Sunday, falling to Michigan Tech in three straight games.

The Huskies won 30-25, 30-28, and 30-28 in a match where coach Will Stanton said fatigue likely played a factor in the team's performance.

"Our execution was not as crisp as it needed to be to play them," he said. "I think we didn't quite play up to our potential today but still really challenged them score wise."

Throughout the day, the team fell into a habit of getting behind early, only to crawl back into the game with several scoring runs. However, each time they were able to get within a point or two, the Huskies turned up their offense and were able to pull away.

On the day, junior Danielle Dryer led the Cardinals offensive attack with 17 kills, while senior Ashleigh Hubbard turned in a strong defensive performance with 24 digs.

For the season, the Cardinals record fell to 10-4 overall and 3-3 in conference play, while Tech's record improved to 7-7 overall.

The team's victory over Northern Michigan Saturday was its third conference victory of the season, already surpassing its GLIAC total from a season ago, when the team went 8-23 overall.

"We're playing pretty well right now, so we've got the ability to get some wins here and there," Stanton said. "We stepped up well when we needed to Friday and Saturday and were able to close out some games coming from behind."

Win streak reaches three

Saturday, the Cardinals defeated the No. 24 Northern Michigan Wildcats in three straight games, 30-28, 30-20, and 32-30 for their third straight win.

Offensively, freshman Allison Schlinkert led the team with 19 kills while Hubbard turned in a great defensive effort with 21 total digs.

Senior Suzanne Beaver was a force on both sides of the ball, knocking down 10 kills and bringing up 11 digs.

Cards roll in home opener

The Cardinals shined in the home opener Friday against Lake Superior State, winning in three games, 30-17, 30-21, and 30-26.

Schlinkert tallied 17 kills on 37 attempts while Beaver had 13 kills of her own. Freshman Kait Harris recorded 45 assists in her second start of the season.

Defensively, the Cards were impressive, as the Lakers hit only .093 from the floor. Junior Amanda Jablonski recorded eight blocks while Hubbard had 14 digs.

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