Women's Volleyball 10/23/2008 12:00:00 AM

ORU Spikers Sweep South Dakota State In Three

TULSA, Okla. – The Oral Roberts University volleyball team swept South Dakota State, 3-0, (25-19, 25-17, 25-19) Thursday evening the Cooper Aerobics Center.

ORU won its fourth-straight match and seventh-straight conference match to improve to 15-6 on the season and 8-1 in conference action. The Golden Eagles snapped the Jack Rabbits six-match winning streak as SDSU falls to 7-13 overall and 5-4 in Summit League play. ORU is now 3-1 against SDSU in the all-time series with the Golden Eagles winning both matches this season.

The Golden Eagles were led by senior outside hitter Janete Ferreira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) who recorded a match-high 14 kills, while senior middle blocker JoJo Souza (Sao Paulo, Brazil) tacked on nine kills. Junior middleblocker Talita Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil) led the team with six block assists, while senior outside hitter Danijela Novakovic (Rijeka, Croatia) registered a match-high 10 digs. Senior setter Thais Parada (Sao Paulo, Brazil) also added 32 assists.

SDSU was led by Mackenzie Angner's 13 kills, while Melia Iwamoto added 17 assists and Justine Olsen tallied eight digs.

The Golden Eagles hit .340 for the evening, while the Jack Rabbits hit .101. ORU also recorded 19 more kills (47-28), 19 more assists (41-22), 13 more digs (39-26) and five more blocks (16-11).

ORU took a 3-0 lead to start off the first set, as Parada recorded two service aces right off the bat. After a Cate kill the Golden Eagles took a 4-1 lead. SDSU came back to within one at 7-6 but ORU took a 3-1 run to go up 10-7 as Souza led the Golden Eagles attack with three kills. A Parada kill took the Golden Eagles up 13-9, while three SDSU errors gave ORU a 19-15 lead. Senior outside hitter Danijela Novakovic led the ORU to give the Golden Eagles a 21-15, while Parada and Souza kills gave ORU a 23-18 lead. AN SDSU service error took ORU to serve for match-point, while a block assist by Santos and Novakovic gave ORU the first set victory.

Ferreira and Santos led the Golden Eagles attack to start off the second set and give ORU a 3-0 lead. Three Santos serves gave ORU three more points and forced SDSU to take a timeout. Souza and Cate kills brought the Golden Eagles up by five at 10-5. Ferreira and Cate continued the ORU attack and gave the Golden Eagles an 18-10 lead and Ferreira continued the attack with three more kills to give ORU a 23-14 lead. Parada and Novakovic kills gave ORU its last two points for the second set win.

SDSU took a 3-1 lead to start off the third set while the Golden Eagles fought back with a 6-4 run to tie up the set at 7-all. Four more ties would happen before ORU kicked into action at 17-all and finished off the set with an 8-2 run as Ferreira, Souza and Santos all added kills in that stretch and a Souza kill gave ORU the set and match point for the win.

ORU continues action at home on Sunday, Oct. 26, hosting Western Illinois at 2 p.m. in the Cooper Aerobics Center.

-ORU-

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Players Mentioned

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

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

#1 Talita Santos: MB; 6' 1"; Junior

Players Mentioned

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

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

#1 Talita Santos
: 6' 1"; Junior
: MB

Players Mentioned

#5 Danijela Novakovic

#14 Thais Parada

#1 Talita Santos

Players Mentioned

#5 Danijela Novakovic

#14 Thais Parada

#1 Talita Santos