14th-Ranked Women’s Volleyball Defeats Akron 3-0 – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/7/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 7, 1999
AKRON, Ohio – The Ohio State (2-0) women’s volleyball squad, ranked 14th in the latest USA TODAY/AVCA Poll moved to 2-0 on the season with a 15-12, 15-8, 15-10 win at Akron (1-4) Tuesday evening. OSU’s Rosie Snow extended her streak of consecutive double-figure kill matches to 23 with a 15 kill, 14 dig performance against the Zips. Buckeyes Dana Stearns (14) and Suzie Stiling (13) also had double-figure kill matches. Stearns also had a match-high eight blocks (1-7) for OSU with Sue Calligaris adding 12 digs. Setters Jen Flynn and Katie Virtue both saw action in the match. Flynn collected 23 assists playing setter in game one while Virtue, playing in games two and three had a career-high 33 assists.
Akron’s Ashlie Case shared match-high kill honors of 15 with Snow while Kim Branam added 11 kills. Kim Schaper, Miranda Valentine and Ashley Lewis had eight digs each while Branam had a team high six blocks (3-3). Setter Schaper collected 38 assists in the match.
In game one, Ohio State trailed 2-1 before scoring the next eight points for an 8-3 lead. At 9-3, Akron ran the next five points to close to 9-8. A Zip error put the Buckeyes up 10-8, but a Case kill cut the lead to 10-9. The squads exchanged points on errors to make the score 11-10. OSU’s Snow scored point 12 on an ace, but two OSU errors allowed Akron to tie the game at 12. A Snow kill made it 13-12 followed by an Akron error for point 14. The Buckeyes closed out the game at 15-12 on a kill by Stearns. For the game, OSU hit .238 to .150 for Akron.
After a 1-1 tie in game two, OSU went up 7-1 on six point run. The Buckeyes continued to expand the lead and reached game point at 14-3 on a Snow kill. Akron held on for nine game points while scoring the next five point to close the lead to 14-8. An Akron hitting error closed the game for OSU at 15-8. For the game, the Buckeyes hit .306 to the Zips .118.
After the Buckeyes went up 2-0 in game three, Akron took the lead on a Case kill, 3-2. OSU took the lead back on three straight points, including two aces by Virtue for a 5-3 lead. Akron tied the game at six on a block by Case and Branam. OSU regained the lead at 7-6 on an Akron error, but a Case kill and a block by Valentine and Lyndsay Spresser put Akron ahead 8-7. Akron opened a two-point lead, 9-7 on an OSU error. The Buckeyes battled back to go up 10-9 on a block by Stearns and Calligaris, an Akron hitting error and a kill by Stearns. Two Akron hitting errors expanded the OSU lead to 12-9. The Buckeyes reached match point at 14-9 on back-to-back blocks by Stearns and Virtue and Stearns and Snow. An OSU ball handling error cut the lead to 14-10 and after several side outs, OSU’s Calligaris served an ace for the match point at 15-10. OSU hit .122 for the game to Akron’s .077. For the match, Ohio State hit .229 as a team to .120 for Akron. Each squad had four ace serves, while the Buckeyes edged Akron in blocks, nine to eight and OSU had a 63 to 50 margin in digs.
Ohio State now travels to Los Angeles to face Loyola Marymount on Friday and Houston on Saturday.
