Kent State University
6-6
University of Illinois at Chicago
5-9
Kent State Captures Golden Flashes Classic Title, Herc Named MVP
9/21/2013 10:25:00โฏPM | Women's Volleyball
KENT, Ohio โKent State put the finishing touches on an unbeaten weekend by defeating Illinois-Chicago in four sets (24-26, 25-20, 25-18, 25-17) Saturday night, earning the team championship at the Golden Flashes Classic in the process. Senior libero Hannah Herc earned MVP and Top Defensive Player honors for the Golden Flashes and was joined on the all-tournament team by fellow senior Aleksandra Nowak and junior Liz Reikow.
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"This is an exciting weekend for our team," said head coach Don Gromala. "The past two weeks, the way that we've been carrying ourselves as a team and playing volleyball, it's been great to watch."
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Herc led a defense that limited Illinois-Chicago to a .043 hitting percentage by recording 10 digs in the opening set, the final of which made her a member of Kent State's 1,000-dig club. She finished with a match-high 19 digs and is ninth on the school's all-time list with 1,009 in her career. Herc posted a 5.37 digs per set average over the three matches and was perfect in serve receive.
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"Our goal was just to play well on defense and we really did that," Herc said. "Whenever we were down, we got back up through our defense. I wasn't even thinking about the 1,000 career digs. I didn't even know that I got it until after the game. My main goal is just to be consistent for the team."
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Nowak and Reikow both had double-doubles in the victory. Nowak recorded 46 assists and 12 digs, finishing the weekend at 12.0 assists and 2.64 digs per set. Reikow used her 6-6 frame to dominate around the net as she totaled 10 kills and 10 block assists.
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"They had a great whole weekend," Gromala said of the trio. "Hannah was steady as ever. She's our leader of our floor court. And that's the big part of the turnaround of this team right now. It's a testament to her and the rest of the 'diggers', as we call them. Ola made some great decisions. This tournament had some pretty good middles all-around, and Liz was neck-and-neck with them, so we're really happy about that."
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Just as it did in its match earlier in the day, Kent State (6-6) had to battle back after dropping the opening set. A back-and-forth set that featured 12 ties and five lead changes, the Flashes had their chance to put it away after Reikow and sophomore Kelly Hutchison combined on a block to go up 24-23. However, the Flames proved to be resilient and posted three straight kills to take the set.
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After hitting just .053 in that opening set, the Kent State attack caught fire. The Flashes hit .396 over the final three sets. Four players posted double-digit kills as part of a balanced attack. All of freshman Bianca Cifaldi's team-best 12 kills came after the first set. Hutchison and junior Lauren Engleman added 11 each, as Hutchison also contributed a career-high eight blocks on the defensive side.
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"In that first set, we made some silly errors on scrambled plays and free balls, and just weren't taking care of the little things," Gromala said. "We tightened that up and really picked up our blocking. We had a pretty good performance all weekend with our digs, but we picked up our blocks in that last match."
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Kent State begins Mid-American Conference play with a pair of road matches this coming weekend. The Golden Flashes play at rival Akron on Friday (Sept. 27) as part of theย PNC Wagon Wheel Challenge and then travels to Buffalo on Saturday (Sept. 28).
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"When we reflect back and look at the season, these are the moments that may be a turning point for us, and I hope we can carry it over a bit into the MAC. Our girls are focused, they have their goals, and they know what they have to do to achieve those goals."
