Sept. 3, 2005

Game 1 Box Score l Game 2 Box Score

Final Results from 10th Annual Labor Day Classic

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida volleyball team isn't accustomed to losing at home, and especially not twice in one day.

The Lady Ospreys dropped a pair of matches to Robert Morris, 3-0, and Eastern Michigan, 3-1, on Saturday at the 10th Annual UNF Labor Day Classic, fading late against a pair of teams that won Division I conference titles a year ago.

UNF head coach Bryan Bunn said the difference came down to intensity.

"Against Robert Morris we weren't ready to compete, and against Eastern Michigan we simply weren't accustomed to playing at that high level for a prolonged period of time," Bunn said. "Eastern Michigan is a good team and they came after us."

After looking somewhat lackluster in losing 30-26, 32- 30 and 30-22 to Robert Morris (3-2) in an afternoon match, UNF returned to the court and appeared tentative in the early going against Eastern Michigan as well, losing 30-18 in game one.

The Lady Ospreys (3-2) fell behind again in game two, but got a spark from freshman Bary Rasmussen off the bench to help erase a 24-22 deficit and forge a 28-28 tie. A Rasmussen kill gave UNF a 30-29 lead shortly thereafter, and the Lady Ospreys eventually prevailed with a 34-32 victory.

The teams battled back and forth again in game three, with Eastern Michigan (3-0) winning 33-31. The Eagles eventually pulled away 30-16 in game four.

"We didn't distribute the ball very well tonight," Bunn said after game two. "That hurt us."

Jennifer King led the Ospreys with a career-high 20 kills in 55 attempts against EMU, hitting .200 for the match. Crystie Collora was the only other Lady Osprey with double-figure kills (11). Kelly Kazmierczak had 24 digs for UNF. Setter Heather Kendrick directed the offense with 46 assists.

As a team, UNF hit just .131, while EMU hit .279.

Becky Baltare had 16 kills for Eastern Michigan and hit .250, while Becky Reenders hit a match-high .450 with 12 kills in 20 attempts.

Against Robert Morris, the Lady Ospreys fell victim to RMU's Lisa Jaszka.

Jaszka tallied three kills in RMU's final seven points in game two and added another flurry in the decisive game three to close out the win. She finished with eight total kills and hit .316 for Robert Morris. Janette Schneider had 11 kills and hit .407 for the Colonials.

Emily Kohler again led UNF in that game with 13 kills and hit a match-high .321. Collora added 11 kills for the Lady Ospreys. UNF hit just .127 as a team and had 27 errors, including 12 in the final game.

The Lady Ospreys will return to action on Wednesday at home when they face Eastern Washington at 5 p.m.