Oct. 29, 2007

Box Score

Senior Marie Bruce (Austin, TX/Connally HS) passed Brittany Sauser on the SU all-time assists list and moved it to fifth all time in career assists in the SCAC as the Pirates went 4-0 at the Southwestern University Invitational hosted in Georgetown, TX this past weekend.

On Friday (Oct. 26), Southwestern avenged a pair of earlier losses by taking down NCAA Division II Texas A&M International 3-0 (30-21, 30-27, 30-16) and provisional NCAA Division I Houston Baptist 3-2 (30-27, 20-30, 30-23, 32-34, 15-13). Earlier in the season, TAMIU defeated the Pirates 3-2 in Laredo but this time SU took it to the Dustdevils with a team hitting percentage of .275. Katy Lukaszewski (Pasadena, TX/Deer Park HS) had 13 kills while Lauren Brown (Austin, TX/Saint Michael's Academy) totaled 12. Bruce dished out 41 assists to average nearly 14 assists per game.

In the next match against HBU, Southwestern played a hard-fought match and got a 40-dig performance from sophomore Samantha Lingamfelter (New Braunfels, TX/New Braunfels HS). Audra Gentry (Albuquerque, NM/Sandia Preparatory) recorded 17 kills in the match. Four different players had double-digit kills and four players had double-digit digs for the Pirates. Just 10 days earlier, SU fell in three sets to the Huskies in Houston, TX.

The Pirates continued their strong play on Saturday (Oct. 27) as they opened the day with a straight set win (30-19, 30-12, 30-21) over the University of Texas at Tyler. Gentry averaged six kills per game and accumulated a .457 hitting percentage as she had 18 kills and just two errors. Bruce averaged over 14 assists per game as she totaled 44.

The final match of the weekend saw Southwestern defeat Texas Wesleyan 3-1 (25-30, 30-28, 30-25, 30-28). Five players totaled double-digits in digs for the Pirates in a strong defensive effort. Gentry again totaled 18 kills while Brown had 13 and Lukaszewski had 10.

Bruce came in to the weekend with 4,516 career assists, 39 shy of Sauser's mark of 4,555. She surpassed Sauser during the TAMIU match as she recorded 41 assists. Bruce's total now stands at 4,690. She now stands alone in fifth place in SCAC history. Lingamfelter averaged over six digs per game, raising her season number to 5.17 digs per game.

Gentry closed out the weekend as the tournament Most Valuable Player with 64 kills in 15 games, an average of 4.26 kills per game. She only had 19 errors in 181 attempts for a hitting percentage of .287. The sophomore outside hitter also totaled 24 digs. The other Pirates on the All-Tournament Team were Bruce and Lingamfelter.

The Pirates close out the regular season on Wednesday (Oct. 31) when they host the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 7:00 p.m.. SU then travels to Sherman, TX for the SCAC Volleyball Tournament beginning with a match against Sewanee on Friday (Nov. 2) at 11:30 a.m.