By: Ryan Hartwig (@RyanHartwig)
GreenBayPhoenix.com
GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The Green Bay volleyball team (13-11, 4-6 HL)
picked up an important Horizon League win Friday night, defeating in-state rival
Milwaukee (8-15, 3-7 HL) 3-1 in front of 353 fans at the Kress Center. The
Phoenix dropped the opener, but responded with dominant victories in sets two
through four (21-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-18) to earn its first win over the
Panthers since 2008.
"With this team that we
have, unfortunately a lot of their memories of playing against Milwaukee
involve a lot of five-setters that didn't go our way," Green Bay head coach Debbie Kirch said. "Tonight we came out
and took care of business. There's a reason Milwaukee has been at the top of
our conference for a number of years, so it's nice to have this kind of a
memory from playing against them."
Monica Anderson
(Cottage Grove, Wis.) led a balanced Phoenix attack with 14 kills, while Carmen Leitermann (Schofield, Wis.) and
Katie Mroczenski (New Berlin, Wis.)
also reached double-figures with 13 and 10, respectively. Junior setter Leah Poel (Jenison, Mich.) directed the Green Bay offense with a
match-high 49 assists, helping five players tally eight or more kills.
"Poel did a great job of
moving the ball around," Kirch said. "You can just look at the set
distribution. She moved the ball around and that's why our hitters were so
open. It's hard to defend a team when
you don't know where the ball is going."
Milwaukee got off to a
strong start in the first, using a 6-0 run to jump out to a 10-7 lead. The
Phoenix fought back to tie the score at 10-10, and the two teams were all
square at 18-18 late, but the Panthers closed with a 7-3 run to pick up the
25-21 win and the 1-0 advantage.
Set two was all Green Bay,
as the hosts built a 15-8 lead after a kill by Lyndsay Zabkowicz (Oak Creek, Wis.). The Panthers cut it to three
(17-14) with a service ace by Anna Bartz, but back-to-back kills by Leitermann
and Anderson pushed the Phoenix lead to 19-14. A kill by Mroczenski gave Green
Bay a set point chance at 24-16, and Zabkowicz ended it with a kill on the
following point to knot things up at 1-1.
Three straight kills,
including two by freshman Taylor Kasal
(Westmont, Ill.), gave the home team a 12-8 lead in set three, forcing a
Milwaukee timeout. Moments later, Green Bay rattled off four straight points to
move ahead 17-9 thanks in part to a pair of Brittany Groth (Oak Creek, Wis.) service aces. The Phoenix led by
as many as nine (21-12) in the third, and Kasal capped off the 25-18 win with
her fourth kill of the set.
Groth continued her hot
serving in the fourth, serving six straight times while registering two more
aces to help the Phoenix to a 6-2 lead. Green Bay extended its lead to five (14-9)
after a kill by Leitermann, and three straight kills by three different players
gave Green Bay its largest advantage at 21-13. Mroczenski notched her 10th kill
of the contest to give the Phoenix a match point try, and Leitermann's 13th
kill ended it at 25-18.
Mroczenski's 10 kills
marked a career high, as the junior hit an impressive .400 on the night to help
the Phoenix snap a nine-match losing streak against the Panthers.
"I think Katie played a
great match," Kirch said. "She's been a solid starter for us all season but,
but tonight she did such a great job offensively and that really helped our
outsides because they had to respect her in the middle."
Groth posted match-highs
in digs (20) and service aces (4), while Leitermann led all players with seven
blocks, including her school-record 100th solo block of her career. Julie
Kolinske paced Milwaukee with a match-high 17 kills, while Elizabeth Egerer
reached double-digits with 12, but also had 12 errors.
Friday's contest represented
Green Bay's annual breast cancer awareness match, as the team wore pink
uniforms and gave fans a number
of opportunities to help raise awareness and funds to fight breast cancer. Friday
was also alumni night, as the Phoenix recognized all alumni in attendance. Former
Phoenix standout Jill Smits Damrow (2002-05) addressed the Kress Center crowd
prior to the match, talking about the importance of raising awareness and money
for breast cancer research. The Phoenix volleyball program began its efforts
fighting the disease in 2005 when Damrow's mother developed breast cancer prior
to her senior campaign.
Green Bay wraps up its
three-match homestand next weekend when it hosts the Horizon League's two
Chicago schools. The Phoenix first welcomes Loyola to the Kress Center on
Friday, Nov. 2 for a 7 p.m. meeting, and then hosts UIC the following day at 2
p.m.
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