Aug. 30, 2003
ST. LOUIS - The Purdue volleyball team used a combined hitting effort and solid defense to claim its second straight victory, a 3-0 win over William & Mary at the Billiken Invitational Saturday morning.
Eight different players got in on the offensive action for the Boilermakers, led by junior Kim McConaha, who posted 13 kills while hitting .444, and putting up a career-high tying eight blocks. Redshirt sophomore Leah Wischmeier racked up nine kills and led the team with a career best .667 hitting effort. Purdue outhit the Tribe .387 to .097, while posting 10 blocks and giving up just one.
William & Mary scored five of the first six point in the match, but Purdue shook it off, going on a 6-0 run to take a 7-5 lead. It was a back and forth battle from that point on as neither team owned more than a two point advantage until the Boilermakers scored rattled off eight straight points to take a 27-21 lead. The run featured a service and two kills by sophomore Marie Franke and three consecutive kills by Wischmeier. Freshman Melanie Ukovich even got in on the action, tallying one of her seven kills. After a one-point pause, Purdue took game one 30-22 capitalizing on a Tribe hitting error to cap the game.
The Boilermakers continued to dominate in game two, racing out to a 9-2 lead. William & Mary cut the lead to five at 10-5 but could not break through after that. After trailing by as many as 11, the Tribe managed to pull within nine, but a pair of Purdue kills and a matching pair of W&M errors sealed the game at 30-17.
Game three was much of the same as Purdue took an 8-1 lead and maintained at least a five point lead the remainder of the contest. Franke posted two of her career-high four aces in the final game to help lift the Boilermakers over the Tribe, 30-15. Despite all of the statistics provided by the returning players, it was redshirt freshman Sarah Vitali who closed the door on William & Mary, issuing the final kill.
The Boilermakers hit .519 and .500 in the final two games of the match, while William & Mary managed a .000 percentage in the final game. Ten aces also helped the Purdue cause, including Franke's four and two by sophomore Renata Dargan.
Purdue (2-0) will finish up the weekend with a 4:30 p.m. match against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.