Oregon State
Arizona St
Schmidt Leads OSU To 3-1 Win Over Arizona State
October 07, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 7, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Gina Schmidt hit .417 with 24 kills and 20 digs to lead the Oregon State volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Arizona State on Saturday. Game scores were 10-15, 15-11, 15-12, and 15-12.
"We did what we needed to do. We came back after a loss and split the weekend. You've got to do that to stay alive in the Pac-10," said coach Nancy Somera, whose team lost to Arizona the night before.
Schmidt led four Beavers with 10 or more kills. Angie Shirley hit .438 with 16 kills, while Michele Solomon and Katrina Nelson each chipped in 10 kills. Schmidt's 24 kills marked her eighth 20+ kill effort of the year. She's had 20 or more kills in seven of the last 10 matches.
OSU also got a solid effort from Brandi Bonnarens, who had her second double-double in as many nights. This time, she finished with 64 assists and 11 digs. She also added six kills and a .556 hitting percentage.
After losing the first game, the Beavers came back strong with a 10-3 lead in game two. ASU, however, cut into the lead to get back in the contest. OSU eventually led, 14-8, but missed three game point opportunities before putting it away on an ASU hitting error.
"We keep reminding the team that we can't fall in love with winning. We've got to fall in love with working hard. We got outworked in game one and got better in game two," said Somera. "Our hard work brought our defense alive, and we got some balls to our middles. We had a real hard-working effort out of our middle blockers tonight."
The Beavers hit .324 in game three, good for their best mark of any game in the match, but then found themselves down, 9-5, midway through game four. OSU called timeout and came back with a sideout. The Beavers scored four straight points - three off ASU errors and one off an ace from Bonnarens - to tie things up at 9-9. The score was tied again at 12-12, and the Beavers took control for the rest of the match. Shirley's kill closed things out to give OSU its first win over the Sun Devils since 1997.
"The fact we won in four makes me feel good," Somera said. "ASU made a surge, but we found a way to slam that game home instead of going to an anything goes game five."
The teams, who sport identical records of 12-5 overall and 4-3 in the Pacific-10, finished the night with nearly identical statistics. Both teams had 75 kills. OSU had 65 digs, just four more than ASU. ASU had eight aces to OSU's six, but the Beavers won the blocking battle, 13-9. The most noticeable difference was hitting percentage. OSU hit .276 for the night, while ASU was held to a .200 mark.
Match Results
Arizona State 15 11 12 12 Oregon State 10 15 15 15
