Sept. 2, 2005
Box Score l Complete tournament results
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida volleyball team is a work in progress thus far in 2005, according to head coach Bryan Bunn.
On Friday night in their opening game at the 10th Annual UNF Labor Day Classic, the Lady Ospreys continued that work in earnest by posting a hard- fought 3-1 victory over Charleston Southern (30-27, 25-30, 30-28, 30-22) at UNF Arena.
Three UNF players tallied 17 kills apiece - returning starters Emily Kohler and Jennifer King and freshman Crystie Collora - to help UNF (3-0) survive a spirited test from the Buccaneers (0-2), who opened the tournament with a 3-0 loss to Eastern Michigan earlier in the day. In the nightcap, however, Charleston Southern pushed the Lady Ospreys early and often before faltering down the stretch in the final game.
UNF hit .201 for the match with 73 kills, while CSU hit just .072 with 39 kills. UNF finished with 35 more attempts (174-139) and had nine total blocks, including five block assists from Megan Wood.
The win was UNF's first at home as a Division I program.
"I thought we played hard," Bunn said. "We had three freshmen (Bary Rasmussen, Heather Kendrick and Collora) on the court and a middle blocker who didn't play here last year (Wood), so that meant four new people were out there for us. We did show some inconsistency at times, but I was proud of how we responded to their runs and pulled wins out, especially in that third game."
After the teams split the first two games, the squads battled back and forth in game three and forged 14 ties along the way - the last at 27 - before an Emily Kohler kill and three Charleston Southern errors sealed the win for UNF. In game four, the Lady Ospreys broke a 4-4 tie with Kelly Kazmierczak's kill and never trailed again, rattling off five straight points to take a 9-4 lead. They led 17-11 and 27-20 before settling for the final margin.
Kohler hit .375 to lead UNF, while Erin Wicker hit .222 with 11 kills for Charleston Southern. Kendrick finished with 57 assists and nine kills. Jenna Thomas and Kelly Kazmierczak each had 15 digs for UNF.
The Labor Day Classic continues on Saturday at UNF Arena with Charleston Southern taking on Easter Washington at 10 a.m., followed by UNF and Robert Morris at 12:30 p.m. Charleston Southern then faces Robert Morris at 4:30 p.m. before UNF takes on Eastern Michigan at 7:30 p.m.
