Volleyball Sweeps East Tennessee State 3-0

Friday, September 16

Harrisonburg, Va.

James Madison University

8-2

East Tennessee State

6-6

East Tennessee State

James Madison

9/17/2011 1:01:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va., Sept. 16, 2011 – Redshirt junior outside hitter Natalie Abel (Washington, Pa./Trinity) recorded her fourth consecutive double-double and junior outside hitter Danielle Erb (Tampa, Fla./Plant) added 11 kills on .385 hitting as the James Madison volleyball team downed East Tennessee State 3-0 in the JMU Coca-Cola Classic at Sinclair Gymnasium/Godwin Hall on Friday night.

JMU won by set scores of 25-20, 27-25, 25-17 to extend its winning streak to eight matches and its overall record to 8-2. ETSU dropped to 6-6 overall.

"I think we are continuing to get better," head volleyball coach Lauren Steinbrecher said. "Our ball control was good and overall I thought we did a nice job."

Abel finished with 13 kills against just three errors to hit .333 while adding 11 digs, two assists and a block. Erb had just one error in 26 attempts for a team-high .385 attack percentage. She contributed eight digs, two blocks and a service ace to finish with 13 points. Sophomore libero Katie Daorai (Tampa, Fla./Plant) chipped in a match-high 13 digs while redshirt freshman setter Kristi Richardson (Glen Allen, Va./Hermitage) had 18 assists, five digs and a pair of blocks.

Setter Kayla Williams had five kills, 21 assists and eight digs to lead the Buccaneers. Megan Devine added a team-high eight kills, but committed six errors for just a .056 hitting percentage. She added a team-best 10 digs. Meredith Hardy led all players with four blocks while Jamie Stancliff had three solo rejections.

ETSU led 8-5 in blocks while the Dukes outhit the Bucs .235 to .120 and held a 53-48 advantage in digs.

The first set went back and forth, featuring seven tie scores and four lead changes. The teams traded points until Madison used a 7-1 run to take a 12-6 lead. The Buccaneers responded by winning nine of the next 11 points, including six straight to tie the score at 15-15. After regrouping during a timeout, Madison closed the set on a 10-5 run to take the early advantage. Abel led the way for JMU with seven kills on .462 hitting and four digs.

Each team