Volleyball dominates Towson

By Wes Shaw, contributing writer
Posted on October 1, 2007 

Behind double-digit kill performances from three of its attackers, JMU defeated Towson Friday night in three games to remain undefeated in conference play and improve to 10-5 on the season.

Senior Allyson Halls, sophomore Kaitlin McFaddin and freshman Lindsay Callahan had 13, 14 and 11 kills, respectively, for the Lady Dukes, who have won eight of their last nine matches.

JMU is now entering the heart of its regular season schedule, in which 11 of its next 12 matches come against conference opponents.

“Making a statement was very important,” coach Disa Garner said. We made some great adjustments, we were able to react to some things they did and we fixed the things we addressed after game two and game three.”

After going up 8-1 early, JMU quickly allowed the Tigers back into the game by way of a 17-6 run plagued by errors and team miscommunication. Towson led 22-19 before the Dukes regained composure and scored 11 of the game’s final 15 points to win by a score of 30-26.

“It’s just being mentally distracted and not focused at the service line,” Garner said. “It’s like shooting free throws. These guys have been serving since they were ten years old. [Service errors are] just caused by a lack of focus.”

Madison improved in each game, winning the second 30-24 before easily closing out the Tigers 30-18 in the third. McFaddin had a standout performance for the Dukes, coming up biggest in the second game with eight kills. On top of her 14 kills in the match, McFaddin added two assisted blocks, one dig and only three errors while hitting .367 on the night.

The victory was JMU’s fourth straight, matching its season high.

“We’ve really been playing as a team and we haven’t been folding when it gets tough,” senior libero Jena Pierson said. “We’ve had a bunch of matches when we’ve been down, but we’ve come back and that’s really helped us out.”

With the loss, Towson drops to 4-14 on the season and 0-2 in conference play. Despite their poor performance thus far, Madison expected the best the Tigers had to offer its conference rival.

Madison enjoyed one of its biggest home crowds all season with an estimated 240 people in attendance for the Family Weekend match-up.

JMU lost Saturday to Delaware 1-3 in games (30-28, 30-25, 28-30, 30-25) and sit behind them in the conference standings at 2-1 in the CAA. The Dukes travel to Northeastern for their fourth conference match Friday.