Ohio State 3, Arizona State 0

[weaver]

No. 19 Ohio State Sweeps Arizona State
Ohio State's Danielle Meyer posts a match-high 28 points and captures Most Outstanding Player honors

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The 19th ranked Ohio State (8-0) women's volleyball team, behind a 28-point performance of Danielle Meyer (Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio), defeated Arizona State (6-2), 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 30-19) to win the Sports Imports Classic Saturday night in St. John Arena. Meyer had a match-high 24 kills (.417), three ace serves, two assist blocks and a team-high 14 digs in OSU's eighth consecutive victory. For Arizona State, Margie Giordano had a team-high 15 points with 14 kills and two assist blocks.

Arizona State held an early 5-4 lead in game one off a Buckeye error. Two Marisa Main (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) kills tied the game at six. A Sun Devil error and a Briana McCarthy (Sr./Jr., Beaver Dam, Wis.) kill gave OSU an 8-6 lead. Two Buckeye errors tied the game at eight. The Buckeyes scored the next five points with a Meghan Simons (Fr., Carroll, Ohio)-McCarthy block, an Ami Stevens (Jr., Centerburg, Ohio) ace serve, two Meyer kills and a Sun Devil error to open a 13-8 lead. Arizona State would close to within two points several times, the last at 23-21. A Meyer kill and two McCarthy ace serves made it 26-21, OSU. At 26-22, kills by Meyer and Main and a Kristen Dozier (Fr., Sandy Spring, Md.)-Main block set game point at 29-22. An ASU block by Staci Smith and Girodano and an OSU error stopped two Buckeye game points, making the score, 29-24. Ohio State ended the game on its third game point with a Dozier kill for a 30-24 win. The Buckeyes hit .238 in the game to .205 for Arizona State.

With a kill from Main and a Meyer ace serve, Ohio State broke a 4-4 tie to take a 6-4 lead. A Giordano kill and an OSU error tied the game at six. Tied at eight, kills by Simons, McCarthy and Meyer put Ohio State ahead, 11-8. Leading, 16-12, two kills by Meyer and her ace serve opened a 19-12 Buckeye lead. The Buckeyes reached game point with a Simons kill at 29-21. Arizona State stopped the next three game points with a Giordano kill and two from Nicole Morton to cut the lead to 29-24. A Stevens kill on the fourth game point ended the game at 30-24, giving OSU a 2-0 lead in the match. Ohio State hit .548 in the game to .429 for ASU.

Ohio State opened game three with a Main-Dozier block and a McCarthy ace serve for a 2-0 lead. At 4-2, a Giordano kill cut the lead to 4-3, but a Simon’s kill, a Main ace serve and a Sun Devil error opened a 7-3 lead. Leading 13-9, a kill from Stevens and an ace serve by Dozier made the OSU lead, 15-9. Ohio State expanded a 16-12 lead with a Simons-McCarthy block, two kills from Meyer and an ace serve from Stevens to lead 20-12. A McCarthy kill set match point at 29-19 and Meyer closed out the match with her 24th kill for a 30-19 win to capture the match, 3-0. Ohio State hit .173 for the game to .077 for Arizona State.

Ohio State hit .309 for the match to .226 for Arizona State. The Buckeyes had a 54-44 advantage in kills and out served the Sun Devils 12-0. OSU did give up 10 service errors to six for ASU. Defensively, the Buckeyes out dug the Sun Devils, 62 to 59. ASU's Sydney Donahue recorded a match-high 17 digs. At the net, the Buckeyes had a seven to 5.5 edge in team blocks. OSU's Dozier picked up a match-high four assist blocks. OSU setter Main recorded 45 assists in the match while ASU's Marina Mercer had 25 and Rachel Mittelstaedt nine.

Five players were named to the Sports Imports Classic All-Tournament Team. OSU's Meyer was named the Most Outstanding Player while McCarthy was named the Best Server and Main the Best Setter. ASU's Colette Meek was named the Best blocker and Donahue was selected the Best Defender.

The Buckeyes continue at home next Tuesday when they host IPFW at 7 p.m. in St. John Arena. OSU then plays at Youngstown State Wednesday at 7 p.m.

MICHIGAN STATE DEFEATS TENNESSEE TECH, 3-0 (30-16, 30-20, 30-21)

Michigan State's (7-1) Katie Johnson had 16 kills and Ashley Schatzle added 12 as the Spartans defeated Tennessee Tech (1-7), 3-0 (30-16, 30-20, 30-21) in the third match of the Sports Imports Classic. Jessica Asplund and Caitlin Bullock recorded seven kills each for the Golden Eagles.

Michigan State hit .315 for the match to .092 for TTU. The Spartans had a 53-28 advantage in kills and a 7-0 margin in ace serves. MSU gave up 10 service errors to five for Tennessee Tech. Michigan State had a 33-30 edge in digs with MSU's Nicole Colaluca and TTU's Katie Kenline sharing match-high honors with nine each. At the net, Michigan State had an eight to five advantage in team blocks. MSU Jessica Hohl recorded a match-high four assist blocks. Spartan setter Allison Ianni had a match-high 42 assists while TTU's Kappy Lang had 21.


Volleyball Box Score
2006 Ohio State Women's Volleyball
Arizona State vs #19 Ohio State (09/09/06 at Columbus, Ohio)

Arizona State | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Smith, Staci........ 3| 4 0 9 .444| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 3 0| 0| 5.5
9 Mercer, Marina...... 3| 0 0 2 .000| 25| 0 0| 0| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
10 Meek, Colette....... 0| 4 2 14 .143| 0| 0 0| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 4.0
12 Morton, Nicole...... 3| 9 1 23 .348| 0| 0 2| 3| 16| 2 0 0| 0| 11.0
18 Giordano, Margie.... 3| 14 3 49 .224| 1| 0 3| 6| 9| 0 2 0| 0| 15.0
32 Fernandes, Danielle. 3| 7 3 18 .222| 0| 0 0| 0| 2| 0 2 0| 0| 8.0
1 Lund, Alison........ 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
2 Burnley, Tierra..... 1| 1 0 2 .500| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 1| 0| 1.0
5 Mittelstaedt, Rachel 3| 0 0 0 .000| 9| 0 0| 0| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
6 Mittelstaedt, Paige. 3| 1 0 1 1.000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 1.0
11 Reeves, Nina........ 3| 4 5 15 -.067| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 4.0
15 Donahue, Sydney..... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 3| 17| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 3| 44 14 133 .226| 35| 0 6| 12| 59| 2 7 1| 0| 49.5

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 13 5 39 .205 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 20 2 42 .429 Arizona State....... (0) 24 24 19 6-2
3 11 7 52 .077 Ohio State.......... (3) 30 30 30 8-0

Ohio State | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Simons, Meghan...... 3| 4 1 16 .188| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 3 0| 0| 5.5
6 Meyer, Danielle..... 3| 24 4 48 .417| 1| 3 2| 0| 14| 0 2 0| 0| 28.0
7 Stevens, Ami........ 3| 6 3 23 .130| 1| 2 2| 0| 7| 0 0 0| 0| 8.0
8 McCarthy, Briana.... 3| 9 3 22 .273| 0| 4 2| 0| 5| 0 3 0| 0| 14.5
12 Dozier, Kristen..... 3| 5 1 15 .267| 0| 2 0| 0| 1| 0 4 2| 0| 9.0
13 Main, Marisa........ 3| 6 0 12 .500| 45| 1 2| 0| 11| 0 2 1| 0| 8.0
3 Tengnas, Anna....... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 11| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
15 Kiel, Ashley........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 2| 0| 12| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 3| 54 12 136 .309| 50| 12 10| 0| 62| 0 14 3| 0| 73.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 17 7 42 .238 Site: Columbus, Ohio (St. John Arena)
2 23 0 42 .548 Date: 09/09/06 Attend: 931 Time: 1:32
3 14 5 52 .173 Referees: Mike Carter, David Carson

Sports Imports Classic Match 4 - Most Outstanding
Player - Meyer, OSU - Best Blocker - Meek, ASU
Best Server - McCarthy, OSU, Best setter - Main,
OSU - Best Defender - Donahue, ASU

[ohiovb]

This was my first look at Ohio State this season. I was hoping to get a real feel for how good they are (or not) in a game against what I thought would be a very good opponent. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with ASU, so my curiousity regarding OSU is still intact.

The big question in my mind is does Danielle Meyer's switch to the outside help the club or not? It's not that Danielle isn't top-notch at that position; she is. IMHO, she was the best player on the court. But, if she'd been playing middle, that statement would still be true, so the question is where does she have the most impact and where can OSU best fill the spot that she doesn't play? I'm not at all sure what the answer is.

OSU didn't get much out of their two freshmen middles offensively, and neither one of them read the play quickly enough to close the block on the outsides. Luckily, this wasn't exploited by ASU, and OSU's back row had an excellent match digging hard hit balls and picking up garbage. They played hard, and look much improved defensively. But you don't want to make a living digging balls when Penn State or Wisconsin is hitting them; they'll need a tighter block.

The offense, though, was mostly limited to the outside and to attacks by Marissa Main. Neither Meyers or Briana McCarthy hit the ball super hard, but both are terrific at seeing the court. They are rarely blocked, especially Meyers, and beyond that seem to be able to even find holes in the defense. Meyers's first 7 tips dropped in for kills. That's not luck when you do it that many times.

They also served very tough. McCarthy's jump floater was especially effective, dipping like a split-finger fastball as it approached the passer. They missed a few too many into the net, but I think that was due a bit to a lack of focus as it became clear that they were the better team.

Amy Stevens had the play of the evening, a diving one-handed pickup on a chase play off the back of the court. She got the ball up, someone else got it over, and I think the Bucks won the point.

OSU now goes back to it's bum of the week club before eventually getting into the Big Ten schedule. I wish they had a tougher schedule, not just for the fan's enjoyment, but to get them ready for what's to come.

[ohiostatetad]

Pretty good assessment, ovb. I remember that Ami Stevens play vividly, and OSU did get the point. It was one of the only times the crowd really pumped up. We were all counting down to kickoff. ;D