By: Ryan Hartwig (@RyanHartwig)
GreenBayPhoenix.com
VALPARAISO, Ind. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The Green Bay volleyball team (15-13, 6-8 Horizon
League) wrapped up its 2012 regular season on Saturday night, falling 3-0 (25-16,
25-15, 25-23) to Valparaiso (19-11, 9-4 HL) at the Athletics-Recreation Center.
The Phoenix will be the No. 5 seed in next weekend's Horizon League tournament,
and will face fourth-seeded Loyola next Friday in Cleveland, Ohio.
"We lost our composure
early tonight and had to fight hard to get it back," Green Bay head coach Debbie Kirch said. "It's going to be
important for us to have a short memory because we start a new season next
week."
One night after breaking
the school record for digs in a career, Phoenix senior Brittany Groth (Oak Creek, Wis.) eclipsed the school's single-season digs record on Saturday, tallying
22 to push her season total to 665. The number breaks Groth's previous record
of 659, which she set as a junior last season.
The Crusaders out-hit the
Phoenix .254 to .106 in the contest, finishing with 46 kills to Green Bay's 30.
Valpo's Mary Dent led all players with 13 kills, while Ellen Vanden Berg had
11. Junior Lyndsay Zabkowicz (Oak
Creek, Wis.) had a solid match for Green Bay, posting a team-best 11 kills
while hitting .280.
After suffering a pair of uneven
losses in sets one and two, the Phoenix battled hard in the third, erasing a five-point
deficit (15-10) to knot things up at 17-17. Senior Carmen Leitermann (Schofield, Wis.) notched a kill to give Green
Bay an 18-17 lead, but a 4-0 run put the Crusaders back in front 21-18. The
Phoenix rallied again to tie the score at 22-22, but Valpo answered with three
of the next four points to secure the 3-0 sweep.
Green Bay and Loyola will
square off in Horizon League quarterfinal action at 4 p.m. CT on Friday at
Woodling Gymnasium.
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