TOLEDO, OH - Toledo opened its 2011 campaign in impressive fashion on Friday evening with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-13) sweep of Wright State in the Blue-Gold Invitational at Savage Arena. The victory was the Rockets' first ever over the Raiders in 14 meetings between the two schools.
The Rockets trailed just once (2-1 in the first set) in the contest and never let their foot off the pedal. UT was red-hot offensively throughout the match, hitting .317 in Set 1, .520 in Set 2 and .438 in Set 3, for a cumulative .408 attack percentage.
Senior S Kassie Kadera quarterbacked the Rocket offense and distributed a match-best 44 assists, a total that pushed her past Amy DeLong (1995-97) into second place on UT's career assist list with 3,727.
Sophomore RSH Becca Reidy paced Toledo's balanced attack with a career-high tying 13 kills to go along with a .435 hitting mark. Joining Reidy with .400-plus hitting marks and eight or more kills were junior MB Bethany Irwin (10-1-22, .409 ATK%), junior MB Bailey Blank (8-2-12, .500 ATK%) and sophomore OH Jordan Kielty (8-0-18, .444 ATK%).
Junior libero McCall Paynter led a strong defensive effort with a team-high 14 digs and helped UT limit the Raiders to miniscule .117 attack mark. Toledo also posted seven team blocks with Blank, Reidy, Irwin and junior OH Sondra Parys registering two blocks apiece.
Dani Branco led Wright State with eight kills.
The Rockets are back in action again tomorrow morning with a 10:00 a.m. meeting vs. Niagara in Savage Arena. The Purple Eagles suffered a heartbreaking loss to Oakland in today's opening contest, as the Golden Grizzlies rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 (15-25, 12-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-13) victory.
