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Stevenson Ends Messiah's Run in Commonwealth Finals

11/4/2012 3:19:00 PM


Box Score

Owings Mills, MD - Messiah College fell to Stevenson University in the Commonwealth Championship on Sunday, bringing to end the Falcons' 13-game winning streak and, potentially, season.

In the opening set, both teams went back and forth, testing each other while jockeying for an advantage through the first 14 points. The first break in the set would be in the Falcons' favor, started off with consecutive kills by seniors Megan Myers and Lindsay King. The Mustangs would side out off a Messiah hitting error, but senior Lauren Rees would get the ball back for the Falcons with a kill of her own followed by a Mustang hitting error- forcing a Stevenson timeout down to Messiah 18-15.
Messiah pushed the score to 20-18 following the Stevenson timeout. However, three Messiah hitting errors and one blocking error allowed Stevenson back into the game and took the first set 25-23.
After coming back to win the first set and full of momentum, Stevenson would jump out to an early 18-8 lead in the second set. Messiah would fight their way back into the match, but the early damage done by Stevenson was too much as the Mustangs claimed the second set 25-20.
The Falcons bounced back in the third set finding themselves up 12-7 early. It would be the Mustangs in the third set fighting back to tie the game at 19 and would not look back on their way to a 25-22 victory and Commonwealth Championship.
“We played pretty well,” commented head coach Judi Tobias. “We had moments where we didn't play great, but we did some good things but just couldn't pull it off.”
The Falcons were led by senior outside hitter Lauren Res with 14 kills. Senior Megan Myers added 7 kills while Jess Geib delivered 35 assists.
The Mustang's were led by the conference tournament's MVP Jessica Gieselman who led a balanced attack dishing out 36 assists to a myriad of Stevenson attackers.
Messiah finishes the season 24-8 overall and only lost two games in the conference, both to Stevenson.
Although the Falcons will not receive the automatic bid from winning their conference, they do have an opportunity to win an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. Selections for the 2012 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship will be held on Monday at 11:00 a.m.

 Fans are encouraged to visit GoMessiah.com to find the link for the show.

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