Mountain Hawks fall in three games

Friday, September 8

Pittsburgh, Pa.

04:30 PM

Lehigh University

Marshall

9/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Lehigh’s women’s volleyball team dropped its first game of the Pitt Invitational on Friday afternoon to defending Conference USA champion Marshall University 3-0 at Fitzgerald Field House. Game scores were 30-17, 30-15 and 30-24. With the loss, the Mountain Hawks fall to 0-8 on the season while Marshall improves to 4-5.

Senior captain Michelle Schwendenmann led the team with 12 kills and a .455 hitting percentage. Freshmen Kelly O’Keefe and Sarah Wolfe held down the Lehigh offense, setting up 12 and 11 assists, respectively. The Mountain Hawks compiled 31 digs, 9 of which came from senior Cassidy Maumus.

The Mountain Hawks had to contend with a strong Marshall offense that was led by Kristin Marcum and Kelly-Anne Billingy, who combined for over half of Marshall’s 58 kills. Marcum recorded a game-best 18 kills off 26 total attacks and an impressive .654 hitting percentage. Billingy chipped in with 16 kills. Maggie Arias led the match with 11 digs.

Head coach Amanda Moran was impressed with how her young team played in the match.

“It was an amazing match,” said Moran. “It was probably the best we have played all year. We played with Marshall point-for-point for most of the match. At one time, we had five freshmen against their juniors and seniors who were part of last year’s championship team. It was a team effort all the way around. This is just the beginning of our team.”

Lehigh will wrap up the Pitt Invitational with two matches on Saturday. The first match will be at 1:00 pm against Pitt while the second takes place at 5:00 pm against Tennessee.