Women's Volleyball 10/27/2007 12:00:00 AM

Golden Eagles Fall to Western Illinois, 2-3

TULSA - For the second time this season, the Golden Eagles (14-11, 9-3 Summit League) couldn't find a way to stop Western Illinois, falling to the Westerwinds (12-12, 9-3 Summit League) in five hard-fought games. This is the first conference home loss for ORU this season.

Juniors Janete Ferreira and Jackie Oliveira were both hard to stop down the stretch, each posting double-doubles, each posting 23 kills. Ferreira tied her 23 career-high kills and tacked on 23 digs for ORU, while Oliveira set a new career-best with a match-high 24 digs.

Juniors Danijela Novakovic and JoJo Souza also had double-digit kills for ORU with Novakovic registering 19 and Souza 10. Souza also added 10 digs to her stat sheet.

In game one, ORU and Western would battle back-and-forth until five-straight attack errors by WIU would give the Golden Eagles the momentum to take game one, winning 30-22.

The Golden Eagles would take the early 5-4 lead and would extend that to 12-5 with the help of three Ferreira kills. Western Illinois would fight back to tie the game at 17-17 and would follow that with a Monique Houston to take the lead, which they would hold the remainder of the game to win game two 30-28.

Western Illinois' momentum from their game two win would transfer to game three, holding ORU to 16 kills off of 59 attempts for a .136 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles would tie the game twice, but never held the lead in game three. ORU would fight to within one at the 25-26 mark, but Western would get three kills from Houston to put the game away, 30-26.

Eleven is the number of times that game four was tied with both teams battling back-and-forth the entire game. ORU held the early 6-5 lead, but Western would hold the advantage throughout most of the rest of the game until it mattered most. ORU would grab the 31-30 lead with a JoJo Souza ace, which was followed by a Ferreira kill to give ORU the 32-30 win to force game five.

Game five would find ORU with a five-point lead over WIU, but Western would fight back to tie the match at 8-8 and would take a two-point lead after two attack errors by Ferreira. ORU would fight until the end, but WIU proved to be too much, scoring three-straight points - two off of blocks - to win game five, 17-15.

The Golden Eagles will wrap up the home portion of their schedule with a non-conference match-up with cross-town rival Tulsa on Wednesday, Oct. 31. Game time is set for 6 p.m. at the Cooper Aerobics Center.

-ORU-

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Players Mentioned

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

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

#4 JoJo Souza: MB; 6' 1"; Junior; UNORP

Players Mentioned

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

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

#4 JoJo Souza
: 6' 1"; Junior; UNORP
: MB

Players Mentioned

#9 Janete Ferreira

#5 Danijela Novakovic

#4 JoJo Souza

Players Mentioned

#9 Janete Ferreira

#5 Danijela Novakovic

#4 JoJo Souza