Saturday, September 26, 2015

Women's Volleyball: George Washington 3 George Mason 1

19 kills for junior Chidima Osuchukwu 

From our friends at GW Athletics...

GW Volleyball Opens A-10 Play with 3-1 Win over Mason

Osuchukwu Leads Three Players in Double-Digit Kills as Colonials Claim First #RevRivalry Point of 2015-16

Junior Chidima Osuchukwu led three players in double-digit kills with 19 winners while swinging .351 to lead the George Washington volleyball team to a 3-1 win over George Mason in its Atlantic 10 opener on Friday night at the Charles E. Smith Center. Set scores were 25-19, 20-25, 25-15, 25-21.

GW (11-5, 1-0 A-10) also earns the first Revolutionary Rivalry point of the 2015-16 academic year with the win over George Mason (5-10, 0-1 A-10). The two teams will meet again on October 31 in Fairfax, Virginia.

Great turnout at Smith Center 

Osuchukwu hit .351 with 19 kills to lead GW's attack. The NCAA blocks leader also led the Colonials at the net with six rejections (one solo, five assists) on the evening.

Senior Maggie Skjelbred (#12) recorded 12 kills 

Senior Maggie Skjelbred finished with 12 kills against just two errors (.476) and added one block assist. Also finishing with double-digit kills was freshman Hanna Justesen, who posted her first collegiate double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs with two service aces.

Frosh Hanna Justesen (#6) added 11 kills 

GW hit .232 (60k-27e-142a) in the match but were outhit by George Mason, which swung .250 (45k-15e-120a). The Colonials offset the difference in attack percentage by posting advantages in kills (60-45), assists (56-44), service aces (5-2) and digs (51-46.)

Morghan Martin (#4) led Mason with 13 kills

The teams battled through seven ties and five lead changes in a back-and-forth first set before the Colonials escaped with a 25-19 win. Neither team led by more than three points in the frame until the Colonials, leading 20-17 after a Mason timeout, closed on a 5-2 run take a 1-0 lead in the match. Mason retaliated in the second set by hitting .367 (14k-3e-30a) and converting 69-percent (14-of-20) of sideout point opportunities to tie the match with a 25-20 win.

Jordan Glass (#14) led the Patriots with 14 digs

Momentum returned to GW's side of the net in the third set as Mason was only able to tally seven kills in the frame. The Patriots took an early 5-4 lead but GW battled back to pull ahead, 11-8, and force a timeout. Out of the stoppage GW scored six of the next seven points to build a 17-9 lead. The Colonials never looked back and took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-15 win.

Mason Strong!

The Colonials limited their attack errors to a match-low four miscues in the fourth set and survived six ties and four lead changes en route to a match-clinching 25-21 victory.

Jordan Trimmer (#18) led all players with 52 assists

Senior Jordan Timmer paced the attack with 52 assists in addition to three block assists.

Maddy Doyle (#17) led all players with 21 digs

Senior Maddy Doyle tallied a match-high 21 digs, many of which led to terminations by GW's offense.

Soph Aaliya Davidson added 8 kills off the bench

Sophomore Aaliya Davidson hit .467 with eight kills off the bench while freshman Alexis Lete provided an energy boost with two block assists.

Christina Porada (#1) recorded 3 service aces

Sophomore Christina Porada led the Colonials at the service line with a trio of aces and added eight digs and two assists.

Junior Loren Williams (#7) added 4 digs & 5 kills

GW will hit the road next weekend for a pair of Atlantic 10 matches at VCU (Friday, 7:00 PM) and Davidson (Sunday, 1:00 PM.)

GW improves to 11-5 (1-0 A-10)

Click here for last night's box score.