Aggies get big win over Pioneers
LAWTON, Oklahoma (October 29) – With a resounding 3-0 win over the Texas Woman’s Pioneers (14-15, 5-7 LSC), the Cameron Aggie volleyball team (15-11, 3-7 LSC) improved on their 2008 record (14-13) by one victory with three matches to play. On Pink Out night in Aggie Gym, CU quickly disposed of TWU 25-20, 25-17, 28-26. Tonight’s win keeps Cameron’s playoff hopes alive this season.
“I think that tonight we played the best as a team on the court that we have in the past few weeks,” Head Coach Brianne Smedley said. “We have played really well as individuals recently, but tonight we finally put it all together and played as a team.”
The 3-0 victory was the sixth of the season for Cameron, and the first since CU’s last win which was a shutout win over Eastern New Mexico at home two Saturdays ago.
In all three of tonight’s sets the Aggies used an early run to gain momentum and secure a victory. The Cameron women were up by as many as 6 points in the first set, 9 points in the second, and 5 points in the third. Tonight’s match was really only close in the waning moments of the final set when the teams battled back and forth.
“It’s definitely a great feeling to win like this and beat a team in three sets,” Coach Smedley said. “It shows you as a coach that your girls are taking care of business and putting the other team away. I’m happy we won; we defined ourselves as team.”
As a team the Aggies finished with a very impressive .312 hitting percentage, including a .396 percentage in the final set. The Pioneers recorded a .220 hitting percentage.
Cameron finished with 57 kills and 64 defensive digs while Texas Woman’s finished with 38 kills and 57 defensive digs. Additionally, both teams finished with 3 blocks and 3 service aces tonight.
Sophomore outside hitters Nikita Abbott and Adrienne Lawson both finished with 13 kills, with Abbot attacking the net 32 times (4 errors) for a .281 and Lawson attacking the net 33 times (3 errors) for a .303.
Senior middle blocker Sydney Stewart also had a great game offensively as she finished with 12 kills (2 errors) on 25 attacks for a team-high.400 attack percentage.
Senior right-side hitter Lindsay Paziuk was the fourth and final Aggie to finish with a double-digit kill total after recording 11 kills (1 error) on 27 attacks for a .370. Paziuk also led the CU women defensively with a match-high 17 defensive digs.
Senior defensive specialist Lindsay Carroll was right behind Paziuk with 16 defensive digs for the match. She was the only other player on either side to record a double-digit dig total.
Running the offense as always for CU was senior setter Laura Ellerbrock, who added another stellar match to her senior campaign. Ellerbrock led both teams tonight with 44 assists. She also recorded a solid 4 kills (1 error) on 12 attacks for a .250 hitting percentage. Ellerbrock’s 2 block-assists also contributed.
“I hope the girls take the confidence of putting a team away into our next match,” Coach Smedley said. “We are capable of doing this to a lot of LSC teams when everyone contributes and plays well. We want everyone to remember this and use it in Saturday’s match.”
As mentioned previously, tonight’s match was also the first “Pink Out the Aggie Gym” event where players, coaches, administrators and fans wore pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In between the second and third sets the Aggie volleyballers walked through the crowd selling pink carnations for $2.00 each, with all proceeds going towards breast cancer research.
“I think Pink Out went really well and I was pleased that a lot of people came out wearing pink,” Coach Smedley said. “Our carnation sale went great and was successful. Overall for the first year of doing it I was very pleased with the turnout and support.”
Cameron wraps up their 2009 home schedule this Saturday (October 31) with a Halloween home match versus a tough Texas A&M-Commerce Lions squad. CU and TAMU-C begin at 2:00pm in Aggie Gym.
