BOX SCORE
MONTICELLO – The University of Arkansas at Monticello volleyball team held off a late East Central rally to defeat the Lady Tigers 3-1 on Friday at Steelman Fieldhouse.
Final game scores were 25-23, 25-16, 19-25 and 27-25. With the win, UAM improves to 7-15 overall and 3-4 in the Great American Conference, while ECU falls to 6-17 overall and 3-3 in the GAC.
UAM head coach Peter Cruz visited with uamsports.com following Friday’s match. The full interview can be viewed at the following link:
http://youtu.be/pL0MXj4Anfc. The video will also be available at uamsports.com.
After dominating the second set with 15 kills on 29 attempts with just five errors for a .345 percentage, the Cotton Blossoms fell in the third set after allowing the Lady Tigers to hit .455 with 13 kills on 22 attempts with only three errors. UAM had to fight back from behind again in the fourth set with the two squads never being separated by more than two points past a 13-10 UAM lead. Sophomore Christina Rini came through with two of her six total blocks on the final two points to seal the victory.
As a team, UAM finished the match hitting .208 with 47 kills on 130 attempts with 20 errors, while ECU posted a .200 percentage with 57 kills on 140 attempts with 29 errors.
Senior Amy Kleypas totaled a match-high 14 kills on 32 swings with just four errors for a .312 percentage. Senior Tusalava Kuaea also reached double-digits offensively with 11 kills on 22 swings with only five errors for a .273 percentage.
Senior Allison Beardsley paced the UAM defense with 14 digs, while a trio of UAM setters contributed to the offensive attack. Junior Amy Bazemore led the way with 18 assists, followed by junior Jaclyn Trinque with 12 and junior Haley Goldwater with 11.
Danielle Essix, Tatiana Booth and Hayley Gerken reached double-digits offensively for ECU with 13, 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
The Cotton Blossoms are back in action Saturday to face Southeastern Oklahoma State at home. First serve is set for 11 a.m. inside Steelman Fieldhouse.
