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 Junior Toni Purgatori had seven kills and seven blocks at Hillsdale. |
Nov. 7, 2003
HILLSDALE, Mich. - The Wayne State 2003 volleyball team pulled out a thrilling 3-2 (24-30, 30-28, 33-31, 20-30, 15-11) win at Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival Hillsdale College Friday, Nov. 7 to end its season. The Warriors finish the schedule with a 9-16 overall record and 5-12 in the league. The match was the final one for WSU seniors Rebecca Hague (Leamington, Ont.) and BreAnne Detrick (Lambertville, Mich./Bedford).
In game one the Warriors jumped out to an 8-3 start, but the Chargers rallied for the 30-24 win.
After trailing early in the second game, WSU took a 21-16 advantage. Great Warrior teamwork force HC to take its second time out. The score was then tied at 26, 27 and 28 when sophomore Jeana Wiehl (Portage, Mich./Kalamazoo Central) had back-to-back kills and senior Hague's serve skimmed the net for an ace to win the game, 30-28.
Wayne State ran off to a 6-0 lead with Wiehl serving in game three. Hillsdale came back to take its first lead of the game at 21-20. From that point on, the game was tied nine times until sophomore Sei Hee Hwang (Toronto, Ont./Cedarbrae) put away a kill to win 33-31. Redshirt sophomore Sofi Berczely (Buenos Aires, Argentina) came up big at the net with four of her career-high 10 total blocks in the third game.
Hillsdale took game four, 30-20, to force a decisive fifth game.
WSU was up 8-4 as the teams changed sides of the net. Hillsdale pushed the score to 11-9, but Berczely and Wiehl combined for another block and the Warriors wrapped up the match 15-11.
Hague finished her four-year career with 2683 assists, fourth-best in school history. In each of the last two seasons, the 5-10 setter had over 900 assists.
Detrick, who played her final two seasons at WSU after transferring from Owens C.C., switched to the libero position half-way through this season en route to 427 digs. She led all players Friday night with 27.
Sophomore Megan Smolen (Grosse Ile, Mich.) had a team-high 15 kills to go along with her 20 digs. Junior Toni Purgatori (Yale, Mich./Lake-Sumter C.C.) added seven blocks (1-6) to the Warriors' season-high total of 17.0.
The Warriors improved from their 2002 GLIAC record (2-15) and will return eight players in 2004.
