Oct. 28, 2008

Box Score

Grand Rapids, Mich. - It took a fifth game, but the Panthers held off a scrappy Concordia team to win on Tuesday night. The win lifts DU to 13-24 overall and keeps them in 5th place in the WHAC at 4-7.

The last time these two teams met, they settled the match in five sets and Tuesday night was no different on DU's home floor. It was a see-saw battle that saw Davenport win sets one and two and then Concordia win sets three and four.

The first two sets were dominated by the host Panthers as they used a balanced offense and some mistakes from their opponent to take firm control of the match 2-0. The Panthers won set one 25-18 and set two 25-20 while posting 27 kills and a .249 hitting percentage.

Sets three and four were all Concordia as the Panthers offense went quiet. The Cardinals used their weapons to post 24 kills in the two sets and they limited the Panthers to just a .097 hitting percentage. Concordia won by the scores of 25-22 and 25-16.

DU knew it had to regroup quickly for the fifth set and they jumped out to a quick 7-4 lead behind an aggressive offense. Concordia came roaring back to take an 8-7 lead at the side change. CUAA would eventually push the lead to 9-7 before the Panthers rallied with two straight kills from Heather Deal. Again, Concordia built a two point lead at 11-9 before DU came back with a kill from Joyce Larioza and a block from Kayla Vandermolen. As the match winded down, the score was 13-13 and DU posted the last two points on a kill from Megan Vanderhyde and a hitting error from the Cardinals.

Davenport was led on offense by Megan Vanderhyde who posted 17 kills and Heather Deal (13) and Joyce Larioza (10) also found double-digits.  Courtney DePriest posted 22 digs on the night and now has the season digs record for Davenport. Kayla Vandermolen dished out 53 assists on the night as the team accounted for 63 kills.

DU will return to the court on Thursday night when they host Siena Heights at 7:00 PM right here in the Student Center.