Sept. 1, 2001

Box Score

On the second day of the 2001 Penn State Invitational held at State College, Pa., the Villanova volleyball team split their two matches on the afternoon and picked up their first win of the season. The victory also gave first year head coach Allison Keeley her first victory at Villanova.

Junior hitter Leah Mathews (Poway, CA/ Our Lady of Peace) nailed a team-high 15 kills and had 15 digs as Villanova survived a five-game match and outlasted Loyola (Md.) 3-2 (30-24, 30-24, 29-31, 16-30, 15-7) in the final match of the Penn State Invitational.

The Wildcats managed to out-hit the Greyhounds limiting Loyola (Md.) to a .192 hitting percentage while registering a .220 percentage of their own. and classmate Libby Sybilrud (Atlanta, GA/ Marist School) added 14 kills and 13 digs.

Redshirt freshman Jennifer Badran-Grycan led the Villanova defense with a team-high 21 digs. Sophomore setter Jennifer Edwards (Valencia, CA/ Valencia) added 14 digs and a game-high 55 assists and senior Jacqueline Fugiel (Roscoe, IL/ Hononegah) chipped in with 12 kills and a .333 hitting percentage.

After Villanova won the first two games of the match, the Greyhounds stormed right back taking game three and four to set up the decisive final game. The 'Cats would jump out to an early lead in the final set and never looked back en route to a 15-7 victory giving them their first win of the season.

In the Wildcat's first match of the afternoon, the 'Cats were outplayed by the University of North Carolina as they dropped three consecutive games to the Tar Heels (8-30, 22-30, 23-30). The Wildcats were again led by Edwards who registered a team-high 19 assists and 10 digs. The Tar Heels were led by All-Tournament selections Eve Rackham who tallied 29 assists and Nicole Reis with 19 digs and 12 kills.

In other matches on Saturday, Penn State (3-0) survived a five game match-up against North Carolina (2-1) 3-2 (30-17, 28-30, 30-25, 28-30, 15-9) and defeated Loyola (Md.) (0-3) 3-0 (30-13, 30-14, 30-16).

Penn State's Katie Schuamacher was named the tournament's most outstanding player after postindouble-figure kills in two of the three games over the weekend. Teammate's Cara Smith and Nadia Edwards were named to the Penn State Invitational All-Tournament team as well as North Carolina's Eve Rackham and Nicole Reis and Loyola's Krista Thornson.

Villanova will return to action on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 P.M. when they travel to Philadelphia, Pa. to take on St. Peter's in the first match of the Temple Tournament.

Final Standings:

Penn State 3-0

North Carolina 2-1

Villanova 1-2

Loyola (Md.) 0-3

All-Tournament Team:

Katie Schuamacher, Penn State, MVP

Cara Smith, Penn State

Nadia Edwards, Penn State

Eve Rackham, North Carolina

Nicole Reis, North Carolina

Krista Thornson, Loyola (Md.)