ATLANTA Ga. - Austin Peay State
University's volleyball team survived some opening-night jitters to open its 2009
campaign with a 3-0 (25-23, 28-26, 25-19) victory against Mercer in its first
game at the Georgia Tech Regency Suites Invitational, Friday.
The first two sets were closely
fought affairs with the Lady Govs needing consecutive points to secure
victories. In the opening set, the Lady Govs trailed 23-22 before posting the
final three points - kills by senior Kirstin Distler and sophomore Ilyanna Hernandez sandwiching an APSU block by Hernandez and junior Jessica Mollman -
for the win. The second set went into overtime where a kill by senior Stephanie Champine and a block by Champine and Mollman secured the victory.
Austin Peay blew open the third
set with six consecutive points, turning a 10-9 affair into a 16-9 advantage.
The Bears would close to within four after scoring four straight points later
in the match, but would get no closer as the Lady Govs cruised to a 25-19
victory.
"We're excited to win our first match," said Lady Govs head coach Mike Johnson. "We battled through some first-match jitters but got contributions from a lot of different players today. We did a nice job serving, hitting our spots on offense and blocking which made the difference today."
Both teams battled through
error-ridden performances. Austin Peay needed to overcome 22 attack errors
which pushed its attack percentage down to .163 despite posting 47 kills.
Mercer committed 19 attack errors, but had just 34 kills and finished the day
with a .106 attack percentage.
Champine started the 2009
season where she left off the 2008 campaign, leading APSU with 16 kills.
Hernandez sparkled in her first significant playing time, posting 10 kills and
a team-best .267 attack percentage. Austin Peay's defense also showed off its
new look, recording nine blocks against Mercer, a number it reached just four
times last season.
The Lady Govs held Mercer's
Libby Hansch - a preseason All-Atlantic Sun Conference pick - to five kills.
Rachel Urbelis led the Bears with nine kills.
Austin Peay returns to action with
a pair of contests, Saturday. The Lady
Govs meet host Georgia Tech in an 11:30 a.m. (CDT) contest before finishing
their stay with a 4:30 p.m. contest against Georgia.
- AP -
