Sept. 19, 2008

Box Score

PITTBURGH—Two Panthers record double-doubles, as Pitt’s women’s volleyball team earned a 3-2 victory over Eastern Michigan in its second match of the Pitt Invitational at Fitzgerald Field House, this evening. Pitt won with scores of 19-25, 25-19, 25-19, 24-26 and 15-12.

Pitt (6-7) was led by seniors Kelly Campbell (Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield/Pacific) and Nicole Taurence (Trenton, Mich./Trenton), who recorded double-doubles in the match. Campbell posted 17 kills and 19 digs, while Taurence had 46 assists and 15 digs in the match.

Junior Meagan Dooley (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West) tied the match high with 17 kills, while sophomore Amy Town (Orillia, Ontario/Orillia) chipped in 11.

Winning their third consecutive match, the Panthers earned the come-back win with a .417 hitting clip in the deciding set. The contest we close until Campbell’s tip led to an 8-5 Pitt advantage. A few plays later Town recorded a monster stuff to give Pitt a 12-7 lead and force an Eastern Michigan (5-8) timeout.

Dooley earned the Panthers winning point of the match with a kill on a back set from Taurence.

Taurence recorded seven assists on the 10 Pitt kills in the fifth set. Earlier in the match, Taurence assisted on a kill Town recorded in the second set to force a timeout, as Pitt took a 9-5 advantage in the contest. However, a 9-6 Eagle run would make it a one-point set at 15-14, causing the Panthers to talk it over.

Pitt would pull away, 19-16, with a kill from Town off a long pass from Eastern Michigan. Dooley’s hard swing a few plays later gave the Panthers a set point with a kill from Taurence. An Eastern Michigan attack error on the next ball would tie the match at 1-1, as Pitt took the set 25-19.

In the next set, Campbell tallied back-to-back aces to push the Panthers ahead 8-5 in the third contest. Campbell leads the squad with 12 aces on the year.

Later in the set, Pitt took a 22-18 lead after Campbell and freshman Hannah Swysgood (Sunbury, Ohio, Big Walnut) combined on a block. The Panthers recorded eight blocks in the match, including four a piece from Swysgood and Town. Pitt won the set with an Eagle ball handling violation at 25-19 and took a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Panthers nearly won the match in four sets, as Pitt rallied three points off two Eastern Michigan errors and a red card that forced an Eagle timeout at 18-17. The Panthers then came out of the huddle with a 4-0 run, however Eastern Michigan would once again regroup and rally a 7-2 run of their own to knot the set at 24. Two consecutive attack errors on Pitt led to a 26-24 victory for the Eagles.

The Panthers came back from 0-1 deficit after dropping the first set 19-25, while being held to a .049 hitting percentage that included nine attack errors. Junior Michelle Rossi (Cleveland, Ohio/Pandua Franciscan) recorded eight digs in that opening set.

In the third match of the day, VCU defeated Gonzaga (3-2). The Pitt Invitational finishes Saturday with Gonzaga and Eastern Michigan at 11 a.m., followed by the Panthers and VCU at 1:30 p.m.