The GW volleyball team broke the University’s blocking record Saturday, recording nine block solos in the team’s 3-0 trouncing of visiting Atlantic 10 rival Xavier. With the win the Colonials salvaged a split over their two game home stand, after having lost to Dayton 3-1 Friday.
Junior co-captain Sarah Hokom’s four solo blocks led GW’s record-setting evening. Hokom was just one block short of tying a GW individual record for blocks in a three-game match held by Cinnamon Burnim (’89) and Allison O’Neill (’90), who each recorded five blocks.
Junior Ruth Lazzari and sophomore Kristin Kiefer each added two blocks to the effort and sophomore Katie Downey added one more to break the record. Xavier had no block solos and only five total team blocks to GW’s 12.
The previous school record for block solos in a three-game match was held by the 1999 squad, which recorded eight blocks in a game at Temple.
GW’s defensive effort made the difference in a match in which neither team was spectacular on offense. The Colonials (14-10, 5-4 A-10) out-hit Xavier but still only averaged .199 over the three games. The Musketeers (14-10, 5-4 A-10) hit .115 as a team, and at one point hit as low as .065 (game 2).
Both teams combined for 159 digs, with Xavier out-digging GW 80-79.
Xavier’s Meggie Hoffman had a game-high 16 kills, but the rest of her team failed to compliment her efforts with no one else tallying double digit kill numbers.
The Colonials were again led by Hokom with 13 kills. Freshman Lindsey Vernand and Lazzari added 12 and 11 respectively.
The two teams, which hold identical overall and conference records, split their two meeting this season.
Prior to Saturday’s win, the Colonials suffered a 3-1 loss to Dayton Friday, getting off to a slow start in the four game match.
GW dropped the first two games quickly 23-30 and 24-30, putting them behind 0-2 early in the match. The Colonials hit a meager .048 the first game, paling in comparison to the Flyers’ .263. They improved to .233 the second game, but Dayton’s match-high .395 negated the effort.
The Colonials took a hard fought game three 30-28, taking advantage of the weakest showing of the night by Dayton, .250, but lost game four 28-30 to give the Flyers the match.
Dayton put on a good defensive showing, outblocking GW 13-3. The Flyers tallied five more defensive blocks than GW (6-1) and 10 more block assists (14-4).
Hokom led the Colonials on offense with 23 kills, while Lazzari and Vernand added 12 apiece. Five Colonials had double digit dig figures. Lazzari lead the way with 16, co-captain junior Lauren Dunning had 13 and Vernand added 12. Freshman Jessica Vesey and sophomore Molly Law rounded out the five with 11 and 10 respectively.
