Moon Township, Pa. - August 29, 2009 - On day two of the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational, the Robert Morris University Colonials finished with back-to-back wins over the Radford Highlanders (3-1) and the Howard Bison (3-0) on Saturday at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The Colonials finished the tournament with a 3-1 record and junior Amanda Graham (Melbourne, Fla. / Eau Gallie) was named to the all-tournament team.
The Colonials had to rally back from a set one deficit in their first match of the day against Radford, falling in set one 26-24. Graham started the match with two straight kills and the score remained even until Radford went on a four point scoring spree to earn a 10-4 advantage. The Colonials took the lead 17-16 after freshman Amanda Craig (Houston, Texas / St. Agnes Academy) grabbed her first put-down of the day with a solid shot cross-court. However, with the score knotted 24-24 Radford tallied two straight kills to earn the set one advantage.
The Colonials came back with a fight in the second set and collected four kills and a service ace to grab a 5-0 lead. A few reception errors by Robert Morris enabled Radford to get back into the set, but the Colonials were able to bounce back and earn the 25-22 win. The Colonials tallied 15 kills to Radford's nine with Graham and Craig leading the way with five kills apiece.
The two squads continued to exchange points in set three until freshman Nicole Wiechecki (Wilmington, Del. / Ursuline Academy) went on a four-point serving run, tallying two service aces in the process. The Highlanders were finally able to side-out off a service error by Wiechecki, but RMU quickly increased its lead when junior Jaye Hellmich (Costa Mesa, Calif. / Estancia) served five points in a row to give RMU a dominating 19-9 advantage. Senior Jessy Nelko (Aliquippa, Pa. / Hopewell) ended the set 25-13 with a kill.
The Colonials tallied 22 kills in the final set to Radford's 13 to help them win set four 25-22 and end the match.
Graham led all hitters with 20 kills and added three service aces and two blocks to the win. Craig and junior Charla Drabant (Wheaton, Ill. / Wheaton North) were the only other Colonials to earn double-digit kills, with 13 and 11, respectively. Bennett led the match with 54 assists and added 10 digs and Junior Corinne Moser (Meyersdale, Pa. / Meyersdale) led the match with 19 digs. Craig and Hellmich each tallied a match high four blocks.
In match two of the Day the Colonials swept the Howard Bison in three. The Colonials dominated the start of play tallying seven kills to the Bison's zero to earn a 10-3 advantage. RMU led for the remainder of the set and finished with a 25-19 win. Seven different Colonials captured kills in the win and the squad held Howard to a negative hitting percentage.
The Bison rallied back in set two and made the Colonials work hard for a 26-24 victory. RMU held the lead until a kill by Howard's Jiyana Brown gave the Bison a 10-9 advantage. With score set at 24-23 in Howard's favor Hellmich prevented the win with a kill, knotting the score 24-24 and then added another put-down to earn the 25-24 lead. Freshman Andrea Catucci (Davidsonville, Md. / Archbishop Spalding) ended the game with her first career kill.
Robert Morris wrapped things up quickly in the third set winning 25-11. The Colonials' strong defense held Howard to negative hitting once again, while Robert Morris tallied 14 kills on a .400 hitting percentage.
Graham led the match with nine kills and added three blocks, four digs and a service ace, while Hellmich tallied five kills on a hitting percentage of .556 and added a match high five blocks. Nelko finished with eight kills and Bennett tallied seven kills, eight digs, four blocks and 28 assists. Moser led the match with 11 digs.
The Colonials return to action on Tuesday, Sept. 1 when they host Cleveland State at 7:00 p.m.
