Volleyball Wins Two, Sweeps Days Inn Invitational

Saturday, September 3

Harrisonburg, Va.

James Madison University

3-2

Coastal Carolina

2-4

Coastal Carolina

James Madison

9/3/2011 6:14:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

HARRISONBURG, Va., Sept. 3, 2011 – Redshirt junior outside hitter Natalie Abel (Washington, Pa./Trinity) collected 27 kills against just two errors to hit .417 on the day to lead the James Madison volleyball team to a pair of 3-0 wins over Coastal Carolina and Robert Morris on day two of the JMU Days Inn Invitational at Sinclair Gymnasium/Godwin Hall on Saturday.

JMU swept the tournament with a 3-0 record to run its winning streak to four matches and improve to 4-2 on the season. Robert Morris went 1-2 in the tournament to drop to 1-5 while Coastal was winless on the weekend, falling to 2-5.

JMU defeated RMU by set scores of 25-14, 25-16 and 25-23 and beat CCU 25-21, 25-19 and 25-20.

"I'm excited to see us continue to get better," head volleyball coach Lauren Steinbrecher said. "I think as a group we are starting to gel more and understand how to play next to each other. I was glad to see us both teams in three sets as well today."

Abel was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after hitting .398 with 41 kills, 31 digs, four blocks, four assists and a pair of service aces. The Dukes' setters, junior Megan Wiechmann (Sunland, Calif./Village Christian) and redshirt freshman Kristi Richardson (Glen Allen, Va./Hermitage), both were named to the all-tournament team. Richardson provided 68 assists and 10 blocks while Wiechmann added 54 assists and 20 digs.

Lehigh's Rachel Charles and Angelika Kopacz, Robert Morris's Lindsey Monger and Coastal Carolina's Kindra Bailey made up the remainder of the all-tournament team.

In the Saturday's nightcap, Abel had a match-high 16 digs on .536 hitting, adding eight digs, two blocks and a service ace. Senior outside hitter Holly Wall (Kaukauna, Wisc./Kaukauna) had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs. Freshman outside hitter Lizzy Briones (Siloam Springs, Ark./Siloam Springs) collected a match-high seven blocks while Richardson chipped in with 23 assists, four kills, three digs and two blocks.

Robert Morris was led by Monger with 15 kills and nine digs. Melissa Bograd led all players with 13 digs while Hannah Hoffman had 25 assists, three digs and a pair of kills.

JMU won the blocking battle 10.5 to 3 and outhit the Colonials .292 to .098.

In game one of the day, Abel tallied 11 kills and 14 digs as