Oregon State
Connecticut
Schmidt Leads Beavers To 3-1 Win Over UConn
September 23, 2000 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2000
STORRS, Conn. - Gina Schmidt had a career-high 27 kills to lead the Oregon State volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Connecticut in the final match of the V.I.C.E. Script Connecticut Invitational on Saturday. Game scores were 15-5, 15-17, 18-16, and 15-6.
Schmidt hit an impressive .397 in the match and also added 17 digs, three blocks and three service aces. She joined teammate Brandi Bonnarens on the all-tournament team. Bonnarens had 68 assists, a career-best 14 digs, five blocks and seven kills in the win over the Huskies. Earlier Saturday, Bonnarens recorded her 3,000th career assist in OSU's loss to Fairfield.
Coach Nancy Somera was pleased with how the Beavers responded against Uconn after losing to Fairfield in five games earlier in the day.
"The difference in the UConn match and the Fairfield match was that against UConn we played disciplined system team volleyball. Against Fairfield, we played out of rhythm and that was due to us not taking control and just waiting for Fairfield to make mistakes," Somera said.
The Beavers hit .355 in game one, but then dropped to .221 in game two. OSU rallied back from a 14-11 deficit to go ahead 15-14, but the Huskies got a block for a sideout and then scored three straight points for the win.
"There were two things in the UConn match that I was happy about," said Somera. "First, we let game two slip away from us because we started doing what we did in the Fairfield match, but I challenged them to not let that happen. We came out and took care of business and fought through and won game three. The second thing is that in game four, we never let up our control and made no opportunity for UConn to get back in the game. We didn't at any time play scared."
Game three was another hard-fought battle, with the teams tied at 14-14, 15-15 and 16-16 before OSU managed to score two points - both off kills from Schmidt.
OSU then dominated in game four to hit .396 in the final game of the match. Once again, Schmidt closed the books with the match-winning kill.
"This was an outstanding performance by Gina Schmidt tonight. She did a great job attacking, digging, blocking and serving," Somera said.
Joining Schmidt with double-figure kills were Angie Shirley (16), Lori Daedelow (14) and Michele Solomon (10). Machel Craig led UConn with 18 kills.
OSU outdug the Huskies, 100-74. Jessica Papell had a match-high 20 digs to lead five Beavers with double-figure digs.
The Beavers finished the tournament with a 2-1 record for second place and improved to 10-3 for the year.
Match Results
Oregon State 15 15 18 15 Connecticut 5 17 16 6
