Sept. 2, 2005
Box Score
The University of Texas-Pan American women's volleyball team struggled in its first day of competition at the New Mexico State University Volleyball Tournament, losing in straight sets to the host-squad and University of Cincinnati on Friday (Sept. 2).
Cincinnati 3, UTPA 0 (30-14, 30-21, 30-25)
In their first match of the NMSU Volleyball Tournament, the Lady Broncs dropped a straight-set decision to the University of Cincinnati.
"Overall, the team played really well. Our defense was very strong, but we have to keep working hard to improve on offense. Cincinnati is a good team, and we played well especially in the third game with a lead late, which we just couldn't quite hold on to," said head coach Dave Thorn.
The Lady Broncs' strong defensive effort was led by Chrissie Carrigan (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada/Mount Douglas S.S.), who finished with a match-high 23 digs. Carrigan's 23 digs made up nearly half of the team's 49 total.
The Lady Broncs' finished the match with 26 kills along with 28 errors for a -.017 hitting percentage as compared to Cincinnati's .266 hitting percentage. The Bearcats held a 49-26 advantage in kills as well as a 56-49 advantage in digs.
Freshman Deanna Schneyer (Diamond Bar, CA/Diamond Ranch H.S.) led the team in kills with eight, including a hitting percentage of .286.
The Bearcats' Maria Pongonis led all players with 19 kills while Noel Olson recorded a match-high 35 assists.
New Mexico State 3, UTPA 0 (30-16, 30-15, 30-10)
In the nightcap, the Lady Broncs were stifled offensively as the Aggies rolled easily in straight sets (30-16, 30-15, 30-10) in their first match of the home tournament.
"This is probably one of the best teams that we'll see all season. I thought that they may be losing some talent from a year ago after they graduated an All-American on the outside. We quickly found tonight that they don't rebuild, this team reloads," said Thorn.
The Lady Broncs didn't have much offensively on the stats side in their three-match defeat as they were led by Karen Lyons (McAllen, TX/McAllen Memorial H.S.), who notched a double-double (assists-digs) with 17 digs and 11 assists.
"Karen played well tonight. I thought that she ran a pretty good offense, and she was one of our top defensive players in this match," Thorn added.
As a team, the Lady Broncs recorded a -.122 hitting percentage, notching only 22 kills to go along with 36 errors in 115 total attacks. It was the second consecutive match in which UTPA did not record a positive hitting percentage.
For the Aggies, Alice Borden and Amber Simpson each recorded 10 kills while Jackie Choi quarterbacked the offense with a match-high 28 assists. Jordan Bostic and Tanya Allan were defensive standouts for NMSU in the match as they finished with 13 and 10 digs, respectively.
New Mexico State collected 45 kills in the contest while only miscuing on nine shots in 95 total attempts, which resulted in a .411 hitting percentage. Kim Oguh finished the match with a .615 hitting percentage for the match with eight kills in 13 total attacks.
The Aggies upped their record to 2-0 on the season while the Lady Broncs dropped to 1-5 during the 2005 campaign. UTPA will be back in action at the NMSU Volleyball Tournament on Saturday (Sept. 3) in a rematch with Tulsa at 11:00 a.m.
UTPA Sports Information
