VOLLEYBALL DUKES GRAB CRUCIAL WIN AGAINST VCU

Saturday, November 5

Harrisonburg, Va.

James Madison University

VCU

11/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

HARRISONBURG, Va., Nov. 5, 2005 – Freshman outside Kelsey McNamara (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) registered a team-high 10 kills and the Dukes served 12 aces to take down the visiting Virginia Commonwealth Rams in Colonial Athletic Association women's volleyball action Saturday night.

JMU gained a season split with VCU and needed the victory to remain in the CAA tournament playoff picture, improving to 8-8 in the league while upping its overall record to 14-10. The Rams fell to 17-11 and 9-7 in conference play. Both teams have two CAA matches to play.

The Rams scored 16 of the first 25 points in game one, building as much as a seven-point lead before the Dukes came back to even the score at 20-20 on a VCU attack error. With sophomore middle Lesley Schmidt (Richmond, Va./Mills Godwin) serving, the Dukes took over the lead at 21-20. The Rams managed to tie the game three times before the Dukes broke a 27-27 tie with a kill by senior outside Blake Tyson (Richmond Va./Mills Godwin). Senior setter Krysta Cannon (Cedar Park, Texas/Westwood) served an ace and a kill by Schmidt gave the Dukes a 30-27 win.

In the second game, the Rams out-hit the Dukes .133 (13-7-45) to -.078 (10-14-51), and VCU junior outside Ludmilla Francescatto (Fraiburga, Brazil) led all players with five kills as the Rams took game two, 30-27. The Rams turned in seven total team blocks in the second game, highlighted by freshman outside Ana Luiza Bernardes de Borja's (Florianapolis, Brazil) four block assists and one solo block. Cannon was the only Duke to hit at a positive clip in game two as she knocked down two kills on three attempts with one error.

Game three saw the Dukes build an 11-point lead (17-6), and the Dukes never looked back. The closest the Rams could get was a four-point difference on a JMU attack error, and the Dukes held on to win 30-23. Neither team hit at a positive attack rate in the third game, but the Dukes managed to stay on top hitting at a -.023 (8-9-44) clip while the Rams managed a -.104 attack rate (8-13-48). Junior defensive specialist Amanda Snead (Richmond, Va./Mills Godwin) and McNamara each registered two aces in the game.

The Dukes came out firing in the fourth stanza, out-hitting the Rams .306 (17-6-36) to .069 (8-6-29) and took the game and match with a 30-22 game win. McNamara pounded out seven of her 10 kills on the night in the fourth game to help lift the Dukes past the Rams.

The Rams offense in the match was led by Francescatto, who managed a double-double posting a match-high 11 kills and a team-high 16 digs. Freshman setter Cat Juson (Long Beach, Calif.) led the Rams with 20 assists on the night.

Cannon assisting on 38 of the Dukes' kills, and sophomore libero Jena Pierson (San Antonio, Texas/James Madison) tallied a match-high 22 digs.