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September 7, 2008
JACKSON – After
a pair of tight losses on Friday evening in the opening day of
its annual Invitational, Millsaps bounced back with a pair of
strong wins on Saturday, knocking off cross-street rival Belhaven
College and Spring Hill College 3-1 to finish the tournament
2-2.
An opening-day
win over Spring Hill was what the Majors needed to get back on
track, splitting the first two sets before winning the final
two behind a trio of season-highs from Maggie
Tumminello (30
digs), Dixie Krauss (28 digs) and Toni
Manley (five blocks).
As a team, Millsaps shattered its season-high with 105 total
digs (previous, 73).
In the third
set, the teams were even through the first 22 points until the
Lady Badgers rallied for four unanswered to take a 15-11 lead
and force Millsaps head coach Jaime Burns to call a timeout.
Manley came up with
a huge block at the net that brought the Majors to within two
points and seemed to give them the energy they needed
to finish strong, rallying to win 25-22
after scoring 14 of the final 21 points.
Spring Hill
took a 9-7 lead early in the fourth set, but fell flat, scoring
just four points the rest of the way while Millsaps exploded
for 18 of the final 22 points and the 3-1 win. A
win in their final match against Belhaven was the Majors
first over the
Lady Blazers since 2004 (3-0 win), snapping a 6-match losing
streak and giving seniors Sarah
Exley and Manley their first
taste of victory over the NAIA foe.
Belhaven took
the first set in a close one, 26-24 after trailing 18-13, before
Millsaps rallied to win the next three by scores of 25-12, 25-20
and 25-18. They hit a combined .241 from the court.
Sophomores
Kate Hall and Hailey
Miranda each posted season-highs, with Hall
tallying 16 kills in 28 attempts (.393) and Miranda grabbing
31 assists. Belhaven was led by Kourtney Clark and Ku'ulei Moses
who notched 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Millsaps improved
to 5-3 with a split over the weekend and will face a tough stretch
of games through the next two weeks, beginning at Loyola-New
Orleans on Tuesday, Sept. 9. First serve is slated for 7 p.m.
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