TOLEDO, OH - Toledo came away victorious in its first
match played in the 'New' Savage Arena on Friday evening with a convincing 3-0
(25-17, 25-15, 25-17) triumph over Bryant on the first day of the Staybridge
Suites Rocket Classic. The victory was the also the first for the Rockets under
first-year Head Coach Greg Smith.
"It's a nice way to start out the season," Smith said. "We
were able to play a lot of players and get them out on the court. It would be
great if we could do that again tomorrow, but we have to come out ready to play
against two good teams."
Freshman OH Sondra Parys paced a balanced UT attack with 10
kills and was error-free en route to an impressive .714 attack percentage.
Sophomore OH Amber DeWeerdt also collected 10 kills and a team-high 13 digs for
the 16th double-double of her young career. Senior MB
Liz Sundburg also produced a solid performance with six kills and a .286
hitting mark to go along with a team-best two blocks.
The Rockets limited Bryant to a .053 attack percentage with
Maria Scocca pacing the Bulldogs with seven kills.
"I thought Sondra came off the bench and did a really nice
job but the key to the match for us was our balanced attack," Smith said. "It
was a good team effort, and I was proud with how we withstood our jitters in
the first set and then went from there. It was good to see us calm down so
quickly after facing adversity."
Toledo
recovered from its slow start in the match by scoring six straight points to
take a 6-5 advantage. The teams then traded points until the Rockets took the
lead for good at 12-11. UT then closed out the set with an 8-2 run and finished
the set with a .316 hitting percentage. Senior MB
Sarah Wilson led a balanced attack in the set with four kills and four other
Rockets tallied three kills apiece.
Toledo
continued to roll in the second set by surging to a 9-3 advantage and forcing
the Bulldogs to call timeout. The Rockets' steamroll continued with a 9-2 run
to take its largest lead of the set at 18-5. Parys topped UT's attack with four
kills with DeWeerdt and freshman OH Bailey Blank tallying three kills apiece.
With a 2-0 lead, Smith was able to let more Rockets see
action in the third set with 16 players reaching the court. Toledo closed out the match with a 9-1 run
after Bryant evened the score at 16 points apiece. Parys continued her
domination with six terminations and a .750 ATK% to lead UT, while DeWeerdt
added four kills.
Toledo will be back in action
on Saturday with matches at 10:00 a.m. vs. Marist and 7:00 p.m. vs. Kennesaw State. The Owls posted a 3-2 (25-16,
25-18, 22-25, 22-25, 15-10) victory over the Red Foxes in today's first match.
