Sept. 7, 2007
PENSACOLA, Fla. - The West Florida Volleyball team put away a strong Emporia State team 31-29, 30-28, and 30-22 Friday night in the UWF Fieldhouse, to prepare for two matches against Sunshine State Conference opponents on Saturday. The Argos take on Rollins College at 3:00 pm and then play the #2 ranked Tampa Spartans, who are the defending Division II National Champions, at 7:00 pm.
Tonight the Argos survived one of their toughest matches to date. Emporia State, now 7-4 on the season, was matching the Argos, Attack for Attack, for the first two games, only to have UWF get the key points at the end. During game one, the Argos took a 28-23 lead, only to see the Hornets from Emporia State score six straight points to take a 29-28 lead. However, Sarah Harrison (Sr. / Sinton, Texas) countered with a Kill to tie the score at 29, and one point later, Madeline Gonzalez (Jr. / Puerto Rico) served an Ace to put away game one.
Game two was very close throughout, as neither team had a lead greater than two points. With the score at 27-26, Luciana Rapach (Jr. / Brazil)and Harrison combined on a key block to put UWF up by two, then Jamie Nichols (Fr. / Crawfordville, Fla.) added a kill to put the Argos up 29-27, and one point later, Rapach had a monster kill to win game two. Finally, UWF was too strong in game three, as they out-hit Emporia State .378 to .140 in the final game.
Isabela Gualberto (Sr. / Brazil) lead the Argos with 15 kills, and Rapach added 13 kills, while Gonzalez recorded 40 Assists. Defensively, Jerica Carter (Jr. / Gainesville, Fla.) led the way with 22 digs. Emporia State had strong performances from Arica Shepard (15 kills) and Brianne Boner (10 kills) to play the Argos even through the first two games. Boner recorded two big kills that helped Emporia State take a 29-28 lead near the end of game one.
However, West Florida scored when they needed to. "Once again, we did not panic, and stepped up on the big points in a close game one," stated Head Coach Melissa Wolter. "Emporia is a tough team, and they play in a very strong conference against some tough competition," Wolter explained, which indicates that the 3-0 win shows the Argos are for real. "We are looking for different players to step up on different nights, and tonight Luciana (Rapach) stepped up and played a great match," said Wolter.
The Argos might need several players to step up on Saturday, as they will host a match against the defending National Champions and #2 ranked Tampa at the UWF Fieldhouse at 7:00 pm. Through the first eight matches, several different players have been putting up great numbers each match, which indicates a well balanced Argo Attack.
