Tampa, Fla. (November 15, 2007) The Nova Southeastern University volleyball team advanced to the NCAA Division II South Regional semi-finals on Thursday afternoon, defeating Wingate University three games to one by the scores of 24-30, 30-27, 30-24 and 30-21. The win ended Wingates season and snapped the Bulldogs 24 match winning streak. NSU improves to 26-9 on the season while Wingate falls to 33-2.
Nova Southeastern struggled in game one, falling 30-24 to Wingate. The Sharks hit a match low .133 while Wingate hit a match high .293. The Sharks were limited by eight attack errors and a side-out percentage of 41%. Stormi Gale led the Bulldogs with seven kills while Christina Chubb (Jr., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), Melinda Gorman (Jr., Sarasota, Fla.) and Aley Tallman (So., Wichita, Kan.) had three apiece for NSU.
The Sharks rebounded to win game two, 30-27. The final score wasnt indicative of how the game was played, as NSU tallied 15 more kills, 14 more assists, 10 more digs and 13 more total points then the Bulldogs. Paola Ruiz (Fr., Rio Piedras, P.R.), Gorman and Tallman all led NSU with five kills in the game. Setter Valia Petrova (Jr., Sofia, Bulgaria) distributed 17 assists.
Nova Southeastern controlled play in game three, never trailing en route to a 30-24 victory. Tallmans four kills helped NSU hit .205 while three team blocks limited Wingates attack percentage to .051.
NSU hit a match high .371 in the final game to put Wingate away 30-21. Tallman continued her great play with six kills and no errors in nine attempts. Petrova had 14 assists and six digs to help lead the Sharks.
For the match NSU posted 21 more kills, 20 more assists, four more aces, 21 more digs and 25 more total points than Wingate. The team hit .255 while Wingate hit .158. Each team had eight blocks in the match.
Stormi Gale led Wingate with 15 kills, followed by Rebecca Bloemer with nine kills and Rachelle Rostas with seven. Setter Melissa DeLuca had 36 assists while libero Chelsea Cancelliere led the team with 17 digs.
Tallman had a career day for Nova Southeastern, tallying 18 kills and a .500 attack percentage. She also had four assists, two aces, 14 digs and two block assists. Gorman followed with 13 kills, while Carle, Chubb and Ruiz had nine apiece for NSU. Petrova fell just one kills shy of her third triple-double in four games with nine kills, 49 assists and a team high 18 digs. Libero Kathleen Yony (Fr., Miami, Fla.) contributed with 13 digs.
The Sharks advance to the NCAA Division II South Region semi-finals for the first time in program history. They will play the winner of the Florida Southern/Saint Leo match at 5:30 pm on Friday, November 16th in Tampa, Fla. The match can be heard live on the NSU Athletics Audiocast Network.
