Sept. 28, 2007

Box Score

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The opening round of the 2007 Comfort Inn Classic was a successful one for the Hawks of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) as they picked up two wins on the opening day. UMES topped Delaware State University (DSU) in a conference match to open the tournament 3-1 and played the nightcap where they knocked off St. Francis University (PA) 3-0. With the wins the Hawks run their winning streak to ten.

In the opening contest the Hawks used another solid outing from sophomore Whitney Johnson (Prince Frederick, Md./Univ. of Albany) who racked up 23 kills on 46 swings to lead all attackers. Caylin Woodward (Garden Grove, Calif./Pacifica H.S.) and Holiday Eller (Minnetonka Minn./ St. Benilde-St. Margaret's H.S.) both pitched in with 13 kills each.

The Hawks (3-0 MEAC) sputtered in game one, falling to their rival Hornets (1-16, 0-1 MEAC) 30-28 but quickly took command of the match posting victories in game two (30-15) and three (30-23) before putting it away in the fourth frame 30-18.

The hot hitting Hawks slammed down an amazing .370 attack percentage to DSU's .157. Another big part of the Hawk's success came at the hands of junior setter Christina Estebane' (El Paso, Texas/ Midland College) as she tallied 49 assists, 15 digs, three kills and a pair of block assists.

Delaware State's Ayana Dyette tallied 14 kills to lead the Hornets while Erica Tajchman had 13 kills of her own.

In the final match of the night the Hawks defeated St. Francis (PA) three games to none and with it improved their record to 12-3 overall. Johnson was again the big swinger, tallying 12 kills to lead all hitters.

Estebane was the story of the match however as she dumped ball after ball over the net, picking up five kills, but more importantly catching the Red Flash off guard, leading to openings for her teammates to pickup kills. She only needed 27 assists but hit an amazing .833 with no errors on six attempts.

Estebane is one of the top serves in the nation and St. Francis found out why as they fell to her serve six times for aces. She added seven digs as well.

Woodward was the second leading hitter with nine kills but her serve was also on as she notched five aces. UMES, one of the best serving teams in the nation had a total of 16 aces in the three games and Eller added four of her own. Shaylin Sommer (Atascadero, Calif./Atascadero H.S.) had the other.

Shirley Miller was the top hitter for the opposition with ten kills but as a team St. Francis committed 48 various types of errors, leading to their undoing.

UMES made their fair share as well, giving away 30 points on miscues. Many of those came in game one where the Red Flash challenged the Hawks before falling 30-27. In game two the Hawks hit a solid .478 but fell off a little in game three, hitting .269. They took game two 30-14 and game three 30-24.

The Hawks look for wins 13 and 14 and numbers 11 and 12 in the streak when they play Robert Morris University (RMU) at 1pm and Norfolk State at 5 pm.

Those two teams faced off in the second match of the tournament with RMU taking the win 3-0 (30-27, 30-18, 30-17). Amanda Graham led the Colonials with 13 kills while Shardonay Blueford led the Spartans with seven kills.

The final day of the Comfort Inn Classic begins at 9am tomorrow with Delaware State facing RMU and at 11am St. Francis facing Norfolk State. The Red Flash meet the Hornets at 3pm.