Erb's 20 Kills Leads Volleyball Past Liberty, 3-1

Tuesday, September 20

Harrisonburg, Va.

James Madison University

9-4

Liberty

5-9

Liberty

James Madison

9/21/2011 1:43:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

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HARRISONBURG, Va., Sept. 20, 2011 – Junior outside hitter Danielle Erb (Tampa, Fla./Plant) collected a season-high 20 kills and redshirt junior outside hitter Natalie Abel (Washington, Pa./Trinity) and junior setter Megan Wiechmann (Sunland, Calif./Village Christian) each added a double-double to lead the James Madison volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Liberty at Sinclair Gymnasium/Godwin Hall on Tuesday.

The Dukes won by set scores of 26-24, 24-26, 25-20, 25-22 to snap their two-match losing streak and improve to 9-4. Liberty dropped to 5-9 with the loss.

"Liberty's a great team and we had a ton of long rallies," head volleyball coach Lauren Steinbrecher said. "I thought we passed really well against a good serving team. The thing I'm most proud of is the energy and passion we came out with and I'm happy to get a win for it."

Erb had her sixth career 20-kill game, finishing with a .260 attack percentage and adding eight digs, a service ace and a block. Abel finished with 11 kills, 18 digs and two service aces while Wiechmann had 29 assists and 16 digs. Sophomore libero Katie Daorai (Tampa, Fla./Plant) tied Abel with a team-high 18 digs, joining Abel, Wiechmann and senior outside hitter Holly Wall (Kaukauna, Wisc./Kaukauna) in double digit digs. Wall and sophomore middle blocker Kelly Maguire (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central) each finished with nine kills.

The Flames were led by Lillie Happel who had 15 kills and 15 digs. Libero Kelly Haseman had a match-high 26 digs and Ansley Gebben had 11 kills, nine digs and two blocks. Loren Tomas led all players with five blocks and Jade Craycraft had 24 assists and 14 digs.

The Dukes out hit Liberty .159 to .134, collecting 61 kills against 47 for LU. The Flames won the blocking battle 11 to 5 and had 85 digs to Madison's 83.

The first set went back-and-forth with 12 tie scores and seven lead changes. LU took the early advantage, using a six-point run to take a 13-8 lead and force JMU to use its first timeout. After the run, the Dukes won 11 of the next 16 points to take the lead at 19-18. Liberty responded with a run to get to set point at 24-23, but Madison closed by winning the last three points, including a service ace from freshman Martha Stewart (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) to take a 1-0 lead. Abel led the way with five kills on .2