Mountain Hawks down Wagner for first win of season
Posted: September 9, 2005
VILLANOVA,
Pa. – Lehigh picked up its first victory of the season Friday morning as the Mountain Hawks opened up play at the Villanova Volleyball Classic with a 3-0 win over Wagner at Nevin Field House. Game scores were 30-23, 30-21 and 30-22 as the Brown and White put an end to their six match losing streak and improve to 1-6 on the season. Wagner opens its season with a 0-1 record. The victory was Lehigh’s first away from Leeman-Turner Arena since a 3-1 triumph over Wagner on
Staten Island in November, 2003.
“Our offense just really kicked it into gear today,” said head coach Amanda Moran. “Our serving was phenomenal; every aspect of our game just seemed to be on today. It was a great all-around effort.”
While the Mountain Hawks had been plagued by attacking errors and low hitting percentage, the Lehigh offense showed vast improvement against the Seahawks, hitting .319 for the match and committing only 12 attack errors. The Mountain Hawks were especially strong in game one, with 12 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. The Lehigh defense held Wagner to a .014 hitting percentage and the Seahawks committed 20 attacking errors and 16 service errors.
Offensively, Michelle Schwendenmann led the charge with 12 kills and a .429 hitting percentage. Sophomore Shannon Spafford added eight kills and three block assists, and Morgan Volkart and Julia Atkins chipped in with six kills apiece. Setter Kathleen Lafferty dished out 25 assists and defensively Cassidy Maumus recorded ten digs for the Mountain Hawks, who seemed to benefit from several early season matches against Top-25 competition.
“The experience we got playing those top teams really helped us today,” Moran said.
Trish Morris led Wagner with five kills.
Lehigh will play its second of four matches in the Villanova Volleyball Classic later this afternoon when the Mountain Hawks take on Rider at 5:30 p.m.