Minnesota 3, Ohio State 2-Gordon 44 kills

[weaver]

Ohio State Women's Volleyball Ends Season With 3-2 Loss to Minnesota in NCAA Regional Championship

Ohio State's Stacey Gordon closes out career with career-highs of 46.5 points and 44 kills.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The fifth-seeded Ohio State (30-4) women's volleyball team ended an outstanding season with a 3-2 (30-32, 34-32, 27-30, 30-28, 15-8) loss to fourth-seed Minnesota (32-4) in the Minneapolis Region Championship played in the Sports Pavilion on the Minnesota Campus. The loss ends the outstanding career of OSU's Stacey Gordon (Sr., Oshawa, Ontario) who had career-highs of 46.5 points and 44 kills in the match. Buckeye Maya Mapp (Sr., Washington, D.C.) added 18.5 points with 17 kills while Danielle Meyer (Fr., Cincinnati, Ohio) added 14 points with 10 kills, an ace serve and six assist blocks. Minnesota's Erin Martin had a team-high 22 points for the Gophers with a team-high 20 kills and two solo blocks.

Game one saw Minnesota holding a 20-15 lead in the match. At 27-23, Minnesota, a Gordon kill, two Minnesota errors and a block by Gordon and Mapp tied the game at 27. OSU took a 28-27 lead with a Gordon kill. An OSU error tied the game at 28. Gordon's kill gave OSU a 29-28 lead. A Martin kill tied the game at 29. An OSU error made the score 30-29, Minnesota, serving for the game. Gordon the scored three consecutive kill to close the game at 32-30. Ohio State hit .350 for the game to .217 for Minnesota.

Ohio State held the lead for most of game two until Minnesota tied the game at 26 with a Martin kill. A Martin solo block made it 27-26, Gophers. Two kills from Gordon made it 29-28 OSU with the Buckeyes serving for the game. An OSU error tied the game at 29. Kills by Gordon and Kelly Bowman moved the score to 30. A Buckeye error set game point for Minnesota at 31-30. Gordon's kill tied the game at 31. Minnesota took a 32-31 lead with a Lindsey Taatjes kill but a Mapp kill tied the game at 32. Minnesota kills by Jessica Byrnes and Marci Peniata gave the Gophers a 34-32 win in game two. The Buckeyes hit .316 in the game to .315 for Minnesota.

Trailing 15-14 in game three, Ohio State used a Meyer kill to tie the game at 15. Two Mapp kills and a Meyer ace serve gave OSU a 18-15 lead. OSU held a 22-18 lead when a four-point run tied the game at 22. Kills by Taatjes and Bowman, a Taatjes ace serve and a Buckeye error comprised the run. OSU regained the lead with a Gordon kill at 23-22. Another Gordon kill and a Marisa Main (So., Louisville, Ky.) solo block gave OSU a 25-23 lead. A Buckeye error cut the lead to 25-24. Three straight kills by Gordon gave OSU a 28-24 lead. Kills by Meredith Nelson and Ami Stevens (Fr., Centerburg, Ohio) set game point for OSU at 29-25. A Buckeye error and a Trisha Bratford kill cut the lead to 29-27. OSU won the game, 30-27 with a Mapp kills to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The Buckeyes hit .422 in the game to .353 for Minnesota.

In game four Minnesota, from a two-two tie, held the lead. With Minnesota leading 23-17, the Buckeyes had an 8-2 run to tie the game at 25. Gordon contributed six kills during the run. Tied at 26, two Buckeye errors gave Minnesota a 28-26 lead. A Gordon kill cut the lead to 28-27. Bowman's kill set game point for Minnesota at 29-27. A Gopher error cut the lead to 29-28 but Taatjes closed out the game with a kill to end the game at 30-28 and tied the game at two games each. For the game, Minnesota hit .159 to .135 for Ohio State.

Minnesota opened game five with a Martin kill and never looked back, winning the game 15-8 to take the match, 3-2, and advance to the NCAA Championship National Semifinals next week. The Gophers hit .565 for the game to .211 for OSU.

Minnesota hit .298 for the match to .291 for OSU. Each squad had 87 kills in the match. Minnesota recorded six ace serves in the contest to four for the Buckeyes. OSU gave up 16 service errors to 15 for Minnesota. Defensively, the Gophers had a 97-93 advantage in digs with Gopher Paula Gentil collecting a match-high 38. OSU's Rebecca Kastein (Jr., Mt. Lebanon, Pa.) had a team-high 29, setting a new career high. At the net, each team produced 11 team blocks. OSU's Meyer recorded a match-high six assist blocks. OSU's Main had 78 assists in the match while Gophers Bowman (45) and Taatjes (37) handled the setting duties for Minnesota.

Named to the Minneapolis Regional All-Tournament team were Michelle Piantadosi of Tennessee, Lynnette Moster of Georgia Tech, Stacey Gordon and Maya Mapp of Ohio State and Erin Martin and Paula Gentil of Minnesota. Gopher Lindsey Taatjes was named the Region Most Valuable Player.

OSU Notes:

Stacey Gordon had a career-high 44 kills against Minnesota. Her previous best was 41 at Purdue in 2003. Her 46.5 points (44 kills, 1 ace serve, 3 assist blocks) was also a career high. Her previous best was 42 at Purdue.

Stacey Gordon ends her career with 2,798 kills as the Ohio State and Big Ten career leader. She passed No. 3 Tara Cross of Long Beach State (1986-89) with 2,767 to finish her career No. 3 in NCAA Division I career kills.

Stacey Gordon ends her collegiate career with a streak of 110 consecutive matches with double-figure kills. In her career, she had double-figure kills in 123 of 125 matches she played in. One of the two matches that she did not record double-figure kills was because she played only as a defensive specialist in the back row and had no attempts.

Libero Rebecca Kastein had a career-high 29 digs against Minnesota. Her previous high was 21, set Friday against Tennessee.

Ohio State ends the season with a 30-4 record after being 11-17 in 2003. OSU was unranked at the beginning of the season but were ranked seventh and seeded fifth in the NCAA Championship.

It was OSU's third regional championship match and the first that they have lost.


Volleyball Box Score
2004 Ohio State Women's Volleyball
#7 Ohio State vs #4 Minnesota (Dec 11, 2004 at Minneapolis, MN)

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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 Meyer, Danielle..... 5| 10 3 27 .259| 0| 1 3| 1| 3| 0 6 1| 0| 14.0
7 Stevens, Ami........ 5| 5 4 29 .034| 0| 1 2| 3| 18| 0 1 1| 0| 6.5
8 McCarthy, Briana.... 5| 7 2 19 .263| 0| 1 4| 0| 3| 0 5 0| 0| 10.5
10 Gordon, Stacey...... 5| 44 10 86 .395| 1| 1 1| 0| 19| 0 3 1| 0| 46.5
12 Main, Marisa........ 5| 4 2 14 .143| 78| 0 1| 0| 9| 1 1 0| 2| 5.5
13 Mapp, Maya.......... 5| 17 4 37 .351| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 3 0| 0| 18.5
1 Kastein, Rebecca.... 5| 0 0 0 .000| 3| 0 2| 0| 29| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
2 Dahms, Brittany..... 5| 0 0 1 .000| 2| 0 3| 1| 9| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
3 Tengnas, Anna....... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
5 Britenriker, Nicole. 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 1 0| 0| 0.5
TEAM................ | | | | 1| | | | 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 5| 87 25 213 .291| 84| 4 16| 6| 93| 1 20 3| 2| 102.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 19 5 40 .350 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 4 5 TEAM RECORDS
2 23 5 57 .316 Ohio State.......... (2) 32 32 30 28 8 30-4
3 22 3 45 .422 Minnesota........... (3) 30 34 27 30 15 32-4
4 17 10 52 .135
5 6 2 19 .211

Minnesota | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Bowman, Kelly....... 5| 11 3 21 .381| 45| 2 2| 0| 21| 0 1 0| 1| 13.5
3 Taatjes, Lindsey.... 5| 18 2 29 .552| 37| 1 3| 0| 13| 0 4 0| 1| 21.0
5 Nelson, Meredith.... 5| 12 1 31 .355| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 1 3 0| 0| 14.5
6 Peniata, Marci...... 5| 1 0 3 .333| 1| 0 0| 1| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 1.0
10 Byrnes, Jessica..... 3| 10 2 18 .444| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 2 1| 0| 11.0
13 Martin, Erin........ 5| 20 10 63 .159| 1| 0 0| 0| 3| 2 0 0| 0| 22.0
2 Reinhart, Lisa...... 5| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 4| 2| 11| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
4 Bratford, Trisha.... 5| 14 4 47 .213| 0| 0 1| 0| 5| 0 1 0| 0| 14.5
8 Bowman, Jen......... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
11 Jones, Jessy........ 2| 1 0 4 .250| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 2 1 2| 0| 3.5
15 Gentil, Paula....... 5| 0 0 2 .000| 2| 3 3| 1| 38| 0 0 0| 0| 3.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 5| 87 22 218 .298| 86| 6 15| 4| 97| 5 12 3| 2| 104.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 18 8 46 .217 Site: Minneapolis, MN (Sports Pavilion)
2 21 4 54 .315 Date: Dec 11, 2004 Attend: 3734 Time: 2:31
3 20 2 51 .353 Referees: Joan Powell, Michael Blaylock
4 15 8 44 .159 2004 NCAA Div. I Women's Volleyball Championship
5 13 0 23 .565 Minneapolis Regional Final Match

1 2 3 4 5 Total
Tie scores 12 11 13 3 0 39
Lead changes 6 4 3 2 0 15

[simplycurious]

Anyone got any quotes from this one? I've looked everywhere and can't find any...not even from the NCAA post-interview.

[JT]

www.gophersports.com/sportsNews/press_release.asp?news_id=9919&sport_id=wvoll

Ohio State Quotes

Ohio State Head Coach Jim Stone
“I thought it was a great match and both teams played well enough to win. Because we lost it’s only natural to think of the ways that we could have won.”<br>
“I’m so proud of our effort and I really think the fans saw the best player in the country, in my opinion – Stacy Gordon.”<br>
Ohio State senior outside hitter Stacy Gordon
“It’s disappointing that we lost but we are very proud of each other. There is nothing to be ashamed of.”<br>
“We have a lot of freshman and young faces and as a senior I am confident that this team is in great hands.”<br>
“I’m proud to have been at Ohio for four years and I have no regrets.”<br>
Ohio State sophomore setter Marissa Main
“Like Stacy said, it’s disappointing that we lost and a disappointing finish. But I’m very happy that I came to Ohio State.”<br>
Minnesota Quotes

Minnesota Head Coach Mike Hebert
“As far as we were concerned, the match went as expected. I have two words for you, Stacey Gordon. Has there ever been a better player to play the game of college volleyball? She is unbelievable. It was pretty clear to me that the Ohio State team isn’t just Stacey, they have a great cast of players. So do we.”<br>
“In the end, I think it came down to us having a home court advantage. Just like last night, it came down to us making terrific plays, one-on-one blocks. We played our game five yesterday and today just terrifically with confidence and belief in what we were trying to do. That was pretty much the difference in the match.”<br>
Minnesota senior setter Lindsey Taatjes
(on predicting her success in the new offensive system) “No, especially when we started last spring, I thought I would be the accessory out there, the last option for hitting. With Erin Martin and Tri Bratford on the outside, having people key on them, it opens up a lot of things for me. It’s helps that they’re doing well, because it opens me up.”<br>
“It was incredible, just the atmosphere and the crowd cheering us on. Going into the fifth game , well, we don’t like to play fifth games if we don’t have to, but if we have to play a fifth game, we go in with confidence. We know fifth games are ours.”<br>
Minnesota senior outside hitter Erin Martin
(on going back to the Final Four) “Yeah, I think it’s set in. When were doing out jog around the court, I thought, yeah, we’re going back. It’s something we’ve worked for all year, and we weren’t going to let that game go. It might have looked like it at times, but we weren’t going to let it go.”<br>
Minnesota freshman middle blocker Jessy Jones
(about coming in cold in game four) “It wasn’t really going through my mind, I was just going to go out there and do everything I could, and I’ve been waiting for that opportunity for a long time. I’m a pretty fierce competitor, so I wasn’t even thinking that I was cold. I was just going to do everything I could to help the team.”

[Deleted]

Being at home was the reason Minn WON, even the coach said so.

[Gorf]

Your point being?

[Deleted]

kauaiboy said:

Being at home was the reason Minn WON, even the coach said so.

Yeah, it was a gift. We are so unworthy.

Idiot.

[Deleted]

My point was clearly made with my comment.

Ruffda...go take a hike...

[Gorf]

kauaiboy said:

My point was clearly made with my comment.

(R)uffda! ...go take a hike...

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

Oy...

[Deleted]

No I'll take a beer with some sashimi .