Women's Volleyball 10/13/2007 12:00:00 AM

Golden Eagles Secure Conference Lead; Defeat North Dakota State 3-2

TULSA - With the help of four player's with double-digit kills and five with double-digit digs, the Golden Eagles (12-8, 7-1 Summit League) came away with the win against North Dakota State (14-6, 6-3 Summit League) to secure their conference lead as well as extend their home winning streak to eight matches.

With the win, head coach Sheera Sirola snags her 100th win and becomes only the fourth head coach in the program's history to win 100 matches or more at ORU.

Junior setter Thais Parada nearly finished the match with her first triple-double of the season as she posted eight kills, 61 assists and a career-high 20 digs on the night. Minas Gerais, Brazil native Jackie Oliveira registered her 14th double-double of the season with 19 kills and 14 digs as well as being a force at the net with four total blocks.

Junior Danijela Novakovic was strong offensively for the Golden Eagles, finishing the match with 15 kills off of a .342 hitting percentage. Juniors JoJo Souza and Janete Ferreira both tallied 14 kills on the night while Ferreira dug up 14 digs for ORU.

The teams would go back-and-forth for much of the first half of the game with ORU holding the advantage until a Christy Stuewe kill would give the Bison a one-point lead at 8-7. The Golden Eagles would play catch up, scoring six-straight points to tie the match and then take the lead off of two-straight JoJo Souza kills, 17-16. ORU would lose their lead by as many as two points before fighting back for the lead with four-straight points with the help of back-to-back Jackie Oliveira kills. ORU would win game one, 30-26.

Game two was all ORU as the Golden Eagles held the Bison to 13 kills compared to ORU's 23. The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 5-1 lead before NDSU would break the scoring streak with a Christy Stuewe kill. But the Bison could never catch up with the Golden Eagles as they led by as many as 15 to go into the locker room with a 30-15 win.

The Bison were not ready to go home just yet, taking the early lead in game three and never letting go of that lead. The closest ORU would come to NDSU was at the 2-3 mark at the beginning of the game. A key to their game three win was holding Jackie Oliveira to only one kill. NDSU won game three by a score of 30-24.

North Dakota State would jump out to a 9-5 lead in game four with the help of two-straight Stuewe kills. ORU would come back to tie the game four more ties before NDSU overpowered the Golden Eagles with four-straight points to take a 20-16 lead and would go on to win game four, 30-26.

ORU would not lie down on their home court and came out in game five to take a 3-1 lead off of two bad sets by NDSU. The Bison would come right back to tie the match at 4-4 with a Kristen Hille kill, but ORU would regain the lead with an Oliveira kill and they would never look back, going on to score four-straight points to win the game 15-6 and place themselves in the driver's seat in the Summit League.

The Golden Eagles will host Missouri Valley Conference foe Wichita State on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at Cooper Aerobics Center. The match is set to begin at 6 p.m, one hour earlier than the normal 7 p.m. start time. Live statistics and live streaming will be available for the match.

-ORU-

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Players Mentioned

#9 Janete Ferreira: OH; 6' 0"; Junior

#5 Danijela Novakovic: OH; 6' 3"; Junior; Ekonomska Skola

#12 Jackie Oliveira: RS; 6' 3"; Junior; UNORP

#14 Thais Parada: S; 5' 8"; Junior; Mackenzie

Players Mentioned

#9 Janete Ferreira
: 6' 0"; Junior
: OH

#5 Danijela Novakovic
: 6' 3"; Junior; Ekonomska Skola
: OH

#12 Jackie Oliveira
: 6' 3"; Junior; UNORP
: RS

#14 Thais Parada
: 5' 8"; Junior; Mackenzie
: S