Moon Township, Pa. - August 28, 2009 - The Colonials opened up the season going 1-1 with a 3-1 win against Loyola (Md.) and a 3-1 loss to Bowling Green on Friday at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational held at the Charles L. Sewall Center. Junior Amanda Graham (Melbourne, Fla. / Eau Gallie) and freshman Amanda Craig (Houston, Texas / St. Agnes Academy) led the Colonials on the day with 18 kills apiece.
The Colonials started off match one against Loyola on a good note winning 25-19. After each team suffered a service error, sophomore Alyssa Bennett (Ramona, Calif. / Ramona) went on a five-point serving run to take the lead and the Colonials never looked back. Robert Morris tallied 14 kills to Loyola's 10 and hit .448 to the Greyhounds .179 to earn the set win. Graham led all attackers with five kills in the first set.
Robert Morris's momentum continued in the second set when senior Jessy Nelko (Aliquippa, Pa. / Hopewell) took a hard swing and got a kill after tooling a Greyhound player. Loyola answered back with a kill be junior Nina Camaioni following an RMU service error. The two squads continued to trade points until Robert Morris brought the score to 10-5 off of kills by Nelko and Craig and a couple attack errors by the Greyhounds. Although the Greyhounds were able to bring the score within one at 10-9, the Colonials quickly soared to a score of 25-15 for the set win.
Loyola was able to bring the match within one by taking set three 25-20. The set began similar to the second with each team swapping points until the score was knotted 8-8. However, the Greyhounds were able to take command of the rest of the set with Camaioni leading the charge with eight kills. Sophomore Hannah Veith (Columbus Ohio / Worthington) led set three for the Colonials with a quartet of kills.
In set four, the Colonials immediately took control of the match and went on to win 25-10. Graham opened the set with back-to-back kills to take the early 2-0 lead. After a couple attack errors by Loyola and kills by Craig and junior Charla Drabant (Wheaton, Ill. / Wheaton North) the Colonials escalated to a 6-1 advantage. The Colonial's unyielding defense continued to make Loyola struggle, which led to the dominating victory.
Graham led the match with 11 kills on a .400 hitting percentage, while also adding six block assists and two service aces. In her freshman debut, Craig notched nine kills on a .389 hitting percentage and added nine digs. Bennett tallied a match high 33 assists, a match high seven block assists, seven kills and seven digs. Freshman Nicole Wiechecki (Wilmington, Del. / Ursuline Academy) led the Colonials with three aces and 10 digs.
In match two of the day against the Bowling Green Falcons it looked like Robert Morris might make it a perfect day, as it took set one 25-22. Bennett showed off her ability to balance the offense as five different players earned multiple kills in the first set. Craig led all players with seven digs and also contributed two block assists.
In set two the Colonials and the Falcons play remained relatively even until 10-10 when Bowling Green started to take a commanding lead. A Colonial error and three straight kills from Bowling Green brought the score to 14-10. Robert Morris began to make a comeback in the end with a service ace by Craig and a couple kills from Graham and Nelko, but the Falcons went on to win 25-23.
In set three the Falcons notched 16 kills to the Colonials 10, leading them to a 25-18 triumph and secured the match win with a final score of 25-15 in the final set.
Craig led the Colonials in both kills and digs with nine and 13, respectively, while also adding four blocks. Graham led the match with six blocks to go along with seven kills. Junior Jaye Hellmich (Costa Mesa, Calif. / Estancia) also added seven kills and led RMU with a hitting percentage of .417, and also adding three blocks. Bennett led the squad with 36 assists and added 11 digs and Drabant finished the match with eight kills, eight digs and three block assists.
The Colonials return to the Charles L. Sewall Center tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. to take on Radford and will face Howard at 7:00 p.m. in the concluding match of the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational.
