Michigan
16-15
Kansas State
21-8
Wolverines Fall at Kansas State in NCAA First Round
12/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Site: Manhattan, Kan. (Ahearn Field House)
Event: NCAA Tournament (First Round)
Result: #22 Kansas State 3, Michigan 0 (30-26, 30-25, 35-33)
Records: U-M (16-15), KSU (21-8)
Next U-M Match: Season completed
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- A close match kept the fans on the edges of their seats, but the University of Michigan volleyball team came up short in the first match of its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. The 22nd-ranked Kansas State Wildcats swept the Wolverines 3-0 (30-26, 30-25, 35-33) tonight (Friday, Dec. 6) in the NCAA first round at Ahearn Field House.
Nicole Poquette (Grand Haven, Mich./Grand Haven HS) paced the Wolverines with 11 kills, 13 digs and four blocks. She hit a match-high .588 (11-1-17) and did not commit an attack error until the match was deep into the final game. Chantel Reedus (Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove South HS) entered off the bench and tied Poquette for the team lead in kills with 11. Jennifer Gandolph (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove HS) led the Wolverines in digs with 14, while Katrina Lehman (Bloomfield, Hills, Mich./Marian HS) posted eight kills, three digs and three blocks in the final match of her career.
In game one, Michigan (16-15) had no answer for Kansas State's Lauren Goehring, who hit .700 (7-0-10). The Wolverines trailed 9-5 early in front of a raucous and knowledgeable Wildcat crowd. U-M fought back and took advantage of three KSU errors to take a 12-10 lead. The Wolverines kept the lead for most of the match and were leading 19-17 before finding themselves down 21-20.
However, Poquette turned on the heat and drilled three kills, including an unassisted kill of a free ball that gave Michigan a 24-21 lead and forced Kansas State to call timeout. The break changed the momentum, as KSU scored the next five points with the help of two kills and a service ace to take a 26-24 lead. A U-M error and three kills by Goehring helped the Wildcats to a 30-26 victory and a 1-0 lead in the match.
Game two started out much more promising for the Wolverines. Michigan took a 4-1 lead from the start on a pair of kills by Reedus and a kill by Erin Moore (Tiffin, Ohio/Columbian HS). Kansas State fought back, tied the game at 5-5 and kept it close until the score reached 8-8. From there, the Wolverines took a lead and pushed it to four points at 13-9 and 14-10.
Once again, Kansas State (21-8) chipped away at Michigan's lead and finally tied the game at 17-17. With the score 18-18, the Wolverines made a great play on a ball that was nearly passed out of bounds. Lisa Gamalski (Milwaukee, Wis./Catholic Memorial HS) made a long run, tracked the ball down and kept the play alive, but KSU ended up with a kill to take a 19-18 lead. A few plays later, Moore made a diving pancake save to keep the ball alive, but once again, it was Kansas State that ended up with the point for a 23-20 lead.
Michigan did start to close on a service rotation by Alicia Boswell (Long Beach, Calif./Wilson HS), rattling off four consecutive points for a 24-23 lead and forcing another Kansas State timeout. The Wildcats returned to the court and posted four consecutive points of their own to take a 27-24 lead. Despite a kill by Reedus, a pair of Michigan attack errors at the end of the game gave Kansas State a 30-25 victory and a two-game lead in the match.
Michigan started game three much like the second game. A block by Reedus and Moore gave U-M a 5-1 lead at the start, but it was the same story as Kansas State came back and tied the game at 7-7. The action stayed close with each team taking small leads and the other coming back to tie the score.
Late in the game, a KSU attack error and a block by Gandolph and Lehman knotted the score at 28-28. From that point on it was a thriller. On the very next serve, Michigan thought it had forced game point on a shot out of bounds by Kansas State. However, the up official overruled the line judge and the down official and gave the point to the Wildcats. Michigan stayed alive when the Wildcats' next serve went into the net and tied the game at 29-29.
The teams tied the score three more time before Kansas State forced match point at 33-32. Once again controversy came into play as KSU thought it won the match but instead was declared to have committed a ballhandling error, forcing another tie at 33-33. That would be the last point for Michigan, as Kansas State posted consecutive kills, including the final one by Goehring, to win 35-33 and sweep the match.
The loss ends Michigan's season, while Kansas State advances to face No. 11 Washington State Saturday (Dec. 7) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ahearn Field House.
NOTES
• Michigan's loss in the first round marks the earliest exit in the NCAA Tournament for the Wolverines. U-M advanced to the second round in each of its first three trips to the tournament (1997, 1999, 2000).
• Michigan set the school record for team blocks in a single season with 311 this year. Michigan also set the school record for block assists in a season with 514.
• Michigan finishes the season with 13 of 15 losses against teams which received bids to the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines were 4-9 against ranked teams and 2-12 on the road.
QUOTES
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
On the match ... "First of all, Kansas State did a great job. They played -- especially in games one and two -- more consistent than us, they played better in critical-point situations and they controlled both of those games. I am very proud of how our team fought in game three. We kind of got in trouble late in game three when we started making some errors and it looked like the wheels were coming off a little bit. Then our kids regrouped really, really well. They competed very well at the end, which is something we talked about between games two and three. Unfortunately we didn't get some breaks, and we weren't able to pull that game out."
On the biggest difficulty in the match ... "Both games two and three were tied at 23, and in the same rotation we got in trouble. They made a couple of great plays. They raised their level a little bit, and we lowered ours a little bit. Then we'd be down by four or five and they did a good job in those situations to put the game away."
U-M Junior Captain Erin Moore
On being able to finish the games ... "All year we've had trouble with that. It's kind of poetic justice how we never fixed the problem and it got us in the end. We never really fixed it, but it's something to work on in the off-season."
KSU Head Coach Suzie Fritz
On defeating Michigan ... "I was very pleased with the way we responded to a very good volleyball team. In my opinion, they are a very good team. They certainly served extremely aggressive and throughout most of the match we were trying to force them out of their system. We were finding it very difficult to do. They were a very good passing team as well. (Nicole) Poquette got away from us a little bit on the right side. We couldn't seem to be able to find an answer for her. But for the most part, I thought that we did a nice job of being very patient and touching them and frustrating them. As the match went on, I think that they made some unforced errors."
