Michigan
18-11, 10-8Big Ten
Minnesota
21-9, 14-4Big Ten
Michigan Suffers Senior Night Sweep to No. 22 Gophers
11/22/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Site:Â Ann Arbor, Mich. (Cliff Keen Arena)
Score:Â #22 Minnesota 3, Michigan 0 (30-26, 30-26, 30-20)
Records:Â U-M (18-11, 10-8 Big Ten), Minnesota (21-9, 14-4 Big Ten)
Next U-M Event:Â Friday, Nov. 28 -- at Illinois (Champaign, Ill.), 7 p.m. CST
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan volleyball team closed out the home portion of its 2003 schedule on Saturday night (Nov. 22) at Cliff Keen Arena, falling by a 3-0 (30-26, 30-26, 30-20) margin to No. 22 Minnesota in front of a packed house of 1,712. Junior Lisa Gamalski (Milwaukee, Wis./Catholic Memorial HS) and senior Erin Moore (Tiffin, Ohio/Columbian HS) led the Wolverines with nine kills each, and Michigan honored its three graduating seniors -- Moore, Nicole Poquette (Grand Haven, Mich./Grand Haven HS) and Chantel Reedus (Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove South HS) -- following the match.
With the loss, the Wolverines suffered their second straight 3-0 loss at home Minnesota, which was the last team to blank U-M at Cliff Keen Arena. Michigan also ended its home campaign with a 9-6 record.
The Wolverines played the Gophers tight in game one, but with the score tied at 22, Minnesota took five of the next six points to go up by a 27-23 margin en route to a 30-26 victory. Game two took the same storyline as the score was tied at 24 before Minnesota took four of five points to take a 27-24 lead and roll to a 30-26 victory.
Game three was all Gophers as they hit .279 and cruised to a 30-20 victory to capture the match, capitalizing on multiple four-point runs.
The Wolverines were held to an attack percentage of less than .100 for just the second time this season, hitting .084, while Minnesota posted a .231 hitting percentage. Gamalski paced the Wolverines as she hit .421, committing only one error in her 19 attempts.
Defensively, three players posted double-digit digs, led by Moore's 13. Junior Sarah Allen (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg HS) tallied 12 digs, while junior Jennifer Gandolph (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove HS) notched 10. Moore also led the team in blocks with eight, including seven assists.
The Wolverines will now take to the road to close out the 2003 regular season, traveling to the state of Illinois for matches against Illinois and Northwestern. Michigan will take on the Fighting Illini on Friday (Nov. 28) in Champaign, Ill., before finishing the weekend with a match in Evanton, Ill., against Northwestern on Saturday (Nov. 29). Both matches are slated for a 7 p.m. CST start.
QUOTES
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
On the match ... "I thought they were four points better than us in the first two games. Not a huge, significant difference, but it's enough to win the game. But in game three, we got a little frustrated and that was certainly hard to see. We made more errors in that game. We just didn't control the game as well as we did in game two. It wasn't a significant difference between the two teams but it was enough to lose the match, and that's frustrating."
On seniors Erin Moore, Nicole Poquette and Chantel Reedus ... "Tonight's a hard night. It's our (Mark and Leisa Rosen's) first class. It's a great class. It's a great group of people that we're going to miss. And they've done a tremendous job in their four years here. Emotionally, it's hard on everybody. We don't want it to end. It's nice to have that. It's nice to have a season at the end of the year where you don't want it to end, and you don't want your seniors to leave. So, hopefully we can keep playing as hard as we can because I want to enjoy these guys for as long as we can."
NOTES
• Erin Moore's streak of 17 straight matches with 10 or more kills was snapped. It marked only the third time this season she has not recorded 10 kills.
• Lisa Gamalski's nine kills tie a season high and mark the second time this season a player other than Erin Moore and Jennifer Gandolph has led the team in terminations.
• Michigan's crowd of 1,712 was the fifth-largest home crowd in school history.
• Life-sized banners with action shots of U-M's three seniors were displayed throughout the weekend at Cliff Keen Arena in honor of the Class of 2003.
• U-M did not have a player record 10 or more kills for just the second time this season.
• The 3-0 loss at home marked Michigan's first shutout defeat at Cliff Keen Arena since Minnesota downed the Wolverines by a 3-0 margin on Nov. 15, 2002.
