Women's Volleyball 10/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

Golden Eagles Sweep Away Westerwinds In Three Sets

MACOMB, Ill. – The Oral Roberts University volleyball team swept Western Illinois, 3-0, (27-25, 25-20, 25-20) at Brophy Hall Saturday evening. ORU won its fourth-straight three-set match.

The Golden Eagles improved to 11-5 overall and 5-1 in Summit League action, while the Westerwinds fall to 6-11 and even its conference record to 2-2.

ORU was led by senior outside hitter Danijela Novakovic (Rijeka, Croatia) for the second night in a row, as she recorded a match-high 12 kills, while senior middle blocker JoJo Souza (Sao Paulo, Brazil) added 11 kills. Freshman rightside hitter Serena Cate (Yorba Linda, Calif.) was the third Golden Eagle to record double-digit kills as she tallied a career-high 10 kills. Senior setter Juliane Vieira (Ribeira Preto, Brazil) added a match-high 38 assists and senior libero Carol Garbato (Sao Paulo, Brazil) registered a match-high 18 digs.

WIU was led by Erin Frick's 10 kills, while Sarah Trimpe added 29 assists and Ellen Miller tallied 10 digs.

The Golden Eagles finished the match with a .203 hitting percentage, while WIU hit .109. ORU also recorded 13 more kills (46-33), 11 more assists (43-32) and eight more digs (54-46), while the Westerwinds out-blocked the Golden Eagles, 12-8.

After four ties to start off the first set, WIU took a 5-2 run to go up 10-7 before ORU fought back with a 7-4 run to tie it up at 14-all, as senior outside hitter Janete Ferreira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) led the Golden Eagles serve for four of those seven points. A 5-2 run by ORU put the team up by five at 21-16 as Cate led the attack and the Westerwinds responded with a 7-3 run to tie up the set at 24-24. After another tie at 25, the Golden Eagles came back with two points off Ferreira's serve to give ORU the first set victory.

The second set saw three ties before the Westerwinds took a 10-6 lead, while the Golden Eagles came back with an 8-4 run to tie the set at 14-14, as WIU committed five errors during that stretch. Four more ties took place before ORU took its first lead in the set as Cate and Ferreira led the attack and WIU committed three errors to give the Golden Eagles 23-20 lead. ORU recorded the last two points off Novakovic and Ferreira kills to win the set.

Ferreira served out the first five points in the third set to help give ORU a 4-1 lead, while four WIU errors and two Novakovic kills gave the Golden Eagles a 10-8 lead. Souza added a kill for ORU and Ferreira recorded two service aces to put the team up 16-12. WIU came back to within two at 18-16 but Cate added two kills and Ferreira added one to pad the ORU lead back to five at 23-18. A Westerwind attacking error gave the Golden Eagles their 24th point and a Souza kill gave ORU its final point for the set and match victory.

The Golden Eagles take a short break from conference action next week, facing cross-town rival Tulsa on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. ORU resumes league play next weekend at UMKC on Friday, Oct. 10 and at Centenary on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 2 p.m.

-ORU-

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Players Mentioned

#2 Serena Cate: RS; 6' 1"; Redshirt; El Dorado HS

#6 Juliane Vieira: S; 5' 10"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#2 Serena Cate
: 6' 1"; Redshirt; El Dorado HS
: RS

#6 Juliane Vieira
: 5' 10"; Junior
: S

Players Mentioned

#2 Serena Cate

#6 Juliane Vieira

Players Mentioned

#2 Serena Cate

#6 Juliane Vieira