Dukes Advance to CAA Semifinals with 3-2 Win Over Elon

Thursday, November 16

Harrisonburg, Va.

4 p.m.

James Madison University

21-5

Elon

16-16

Elon

James Madison

11/16/2017 8:06:00 PM | Volleyball

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HARRISONBURG, Va. – The third-seeded James Madison volleyball team picked up a 3-2 win over sixth-seeded Elon in the Colonial Athletic Association quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon inside Sinclair Gymnasium.

The Dukes (21-5) season continues and will face No. 2 Towson in the semifinals on Friday at 4 p.m. The Phoenix end their 2017 campaign with a 16-16 overall record and a 5-11 in league play.

MATCH NOTES

The Dukes won in sets scores of 28-30, 25-13, 25-21, 23-25, 15-9
En Route to the victory, four Dukes produced double-digit kills led by junior Bryn Recker with 22.
Kelly Vahos (13), Liv Crawely (12) and M'Kaela White (10) followed Recker in the attack.
The Dukes tallied 13.0 total blocks to Elon's 4.0. JMU was led by sophomore M'Kaela White who tallied seven. Sarah Martin also contributed at the net with six blocks.
Vahos picked up her sixth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 16 digs.
Senior defensive specialist Taylor Austin led the Dukes defense with 34 digs. Sarah Driscoll and Vahos also produced double-digit digs for JMU.
Martin and Tilbe Yaglioglu split the setting duties for the Dukes with 32 and 23, respectively.
In set two, the Dukes held Elon to a -.023 hitting percentage as JMU hit .297 for the set with 13 kills on 37 attempts, only committing two errors.
Senior Sydney Busa led Phoenix with 23 kills and 22 digs, followed by Kam Terry who also had a double-double with 19 kills and 17 digs.

QUOTING COACH STEINBRECHER
"Every time we step on the court against another CAA team, we know it's going to be tough competition and Elon showed that today. I am glad we played today and had the chance to regroup as a unit because we had a little bit of weird energy to start the match, so I was happy to get that out of our system. We are rested and in shape and will be ready to go tomorrow."

BLOCK PARTY
For the fifth consecutive match, and the sixteenth time this season, the Dukes have recorded double-digit blocks. JMU has out-blocked its opponents 283.0 to 144 for a 2.8 per set average. White leads the CAA and the Dukes with 147.0, good for a 1.50 average.

VAHOS DOUBLE-DOUBLE PERFORMANCE
Redshirt sophomore, Vahos tallied her sixth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 16 digs. This marks her tenth time producing double-digit kills and eleventh time this season to tallied double-digit digs.

HIGHLIGHTS

UP NEXT
The three-seeded Dukes will face the second-seeded Towson Tigers on Friday at 4 p.m. in the first CAA semifinal game at Sinclair Gymnasium. General Admission tickets are five dollars and students with a valid ID from a CAA institution will receive free admission.