Aug. 26, 2006
Final Stats
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Mary Catherine Richmond had her second consecutive match with double-digit kills, and freshman Peggy Riessen tallied a solid seven-kill effort in her second-career match, but a strong hitting performance by four-time Horizon League regular season champion Wisconsin-Milwaukee was too much to overcome for the Redbirds in the second-round of the State Farm Illini Classic at Huff Hall Saturday morning. The Panthers jumped out to big leads in games two and three, and swept Illinois State, 3-0 (30-23, 30-17, 30-23).
UWM picked up its first win of the season in the match, while Illinois State's season slate drops to 0-2. The Redbirds' final opponent in the tournament will by Winthrop today at 5 p.m. The Eagles overcame a 2-0 deficit Friday to humble Milwaukee in five games.
The Panthers collected a team hitting percentage of .293, while claiming more kills (44-38), sets (40-35), and digs (45-34) than the Redbirds. Junior outside hitter Jamie Gabrielsen led the UWM attack with 12 kills while hitting .588. Other notable ISU performances included nine kills from Kari Staehlin, and 33 set assists by Erin Lindsey.
"We played a lot of people today, because we were searching for somebody to calm the team down," said head coach Sharon Dingman. "For whatever reason, I think we were internalizing our pressure out there on the court. We just didn't' compete to the level we need to in order to be successful.
"Hopefully this was our one bad effort of the season. Last year it was Cleveland State; hopefully when we look back on things, we can say that our one bad performance of the season was against Milwaukee."
The story of the first game was one of runs. The Redbirds jumped out to an 18-15 lead capped off by three kills, including two in a row by Richmond. After a UWM timeout, UWM head coach Kathy Litzau was forced into her first timeout. The Panthers responded by taking the next six points, and forced Dingman into her first timeout trailing by three, 21-18.
The Redbirds then mounted a mini-run of their own; reclaiming the lead at 23-22 following an ace by Manoela Vieira DaCunha, part of four consecutive ISU points. But the `Birds would not score again in the game, as six errors down the stretch propelled the Panthers to the 30-23 win. Both Staehlin and the Panthers' Jamie Gabrielsen tallied five kills in the game.
UWM jumped out to a quick lead in game two, and never looked back. After a 3-0 run extended the Panthers' lead to 9-4, ISU called timeout. The `Birds would get no closer than four points for the remainder of the stanza, as Milwaukee built leads of as many as 13 points four times, and capitalized with a 30-17 win. UWM's Melissa David had four kills in the game, and Leanne Felsing had three.
Similar to Friday night against Illinois, Dingman made adjustments to her lineup in the extended break between games two and three. To begin the stanza, the Redbirds' starting lineup included Kristin Dziubla, Riessen, Lindsey, Richmond and sophomore defensive specialist Amy Olson.
"We became very error prone in game two," Dingman said. Obviously as coaches, we need to figure out how to fix that. Both last night and this morning, we put ourselves in good positions to win, and made some uncharacteristic errors. We've got a lot of things to figure out."
Illinois State went up 2-0, but the Panthers aggressively took the 3-2 lead on three consecutive kills with UWM's Melissa David serving. The Redbirds tied the game on five more occasions, but Milwaukee never surrendered the lead. They built a 16-11 lead before ISU collected three straight kills by Lindley McDavid, Richmond and Riessen, forcing UWM into a timeout.
The Panthers responded with an ensuing 6-4 run to take a 23-18 lead. UWM forced game point at 29-23, and ended the game on a swing by Lauren Felsing that was mishandled by Lindsey.
Winthrop, ISU's final opponent in the field, comes in to this season as the four-time champion of the Big South, and was picked to win the league again in 2006.
"Winthrop is a very good team; they have been in the NCAA tournament in four of the last five years," said Dingman. "They are going to challenge us in a lot of ways. We have to take care of business. But the reason we play this tough of a schedule is to prepare us for the Valley season. Playing this tough of competition will be beneficial for us down the road against teams in our league that play similar styles as the teams in this tournament."
