JMU Volleyball Drops Season Opener To Green Bay, 3-2

Friday, August 26

Green Bay, Wisc.

James Madison University

0-1

Green Bay

1-0

James Madison

Green Bay

8/27/2011 2:21:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

GREEN BAY, Wisc., August 26, 2011 – Despite a career-high 15 kills from sophomore middle blocker Kelly Maguire (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central), the James Madison women's volleyball team was unable to hold off a comeback from Green Bay as they fell 3-2 in the opening game of the Country Inn and Suites Volleyball Classic on Friday.

The Phoenix won by set scores of 23-25, 16-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-9 to improve to 1-0 on the season. JMU lost its season opener for just the second time in its last eight seasons to drop to 0-1 overall.

Maguire led the Dukes with 15 kills and just two errors on 31 attempts to hit a match-high .419. She added two digs and six blocks. Redshirt junior outside hitter Natalie Abel (Washington, Pa./Trinity) chipped in a double-double with 10 kills and 17 digs while senior middle blocker Kelly Turner (Ontario, N.Y./Wayne Central) had 10 kills and two block assists. Junior Megan Wiechmann (Sunland, Calif./Village Christian) and redshirt freshman Kristi Richardson (Glen Allen, Va./Hermitage) combined for 45 assists and 13 digs from the setter position while sophomore libero Katie Daorai (Tampa, Fla./Plant) had a team-high 19 digs.

Carlie Willison led all players with 17 kills on .318 hitting and added 18 digs and two blocks for Green Bay. Carmen Leitermann added 15 kills, seven digs and six blocks while Kelly Mischler had 11 kills on .318 hitting. Leah Pool collected 53 assists and libero Brittany Groth had a match-high 22 digs.

JMU held a 10-6 advantage in blocks and 7-3 lead in service aces, but Green Bay outhit JMU .207 to .173 and had 83 digs to Madison's 78.

The first set was a back and forth affair with neither team leading by more than three points the entire set. With the score tied at 22-22, the Dukes won three of the final four points to take an early 1-0 lead. Maguire led all players with six kills on .545 hitting and added three blocks to record 8.5 points in the set.

The Phoenix rushed out to a 7-4 lead in set two, but gave up an 11-3 run to fall behind 15-10. They cut the lead to two points at 15-13 before JMU closed the set on a 10-3 run to cruise to an easy 25-16 win. Madison hit .256 to Green Bay's .095 and was led by Abel and Maguire who had four kills each.

In set three, Green Bay again took an early lead, jumping ahead 9