Lady Blues earn a pair of wins in season-opening day
Aug. 25, 2006

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – After dropping the first game of the match, the Washburn Lady Blues came back to defeat Drury in five games, 24-30, 30-27, 21-30, 30-28, 15-9, in the opening match of the season and of the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns Spikefest Friday. The Lady Blues, ranked No. 7 in the AVCA preseason poll and coming off an MIAA championship and 35-3 record last year, then swept Texas A&M-Commerce 30-17, 30-12,
30-25. Washburn will conitinue action with a match against ATU at 11 a.m.
Saturday and then conclude against Fort Valley State at 3 p.m.

Live stats and box scores of all the matches at ATU are available at http://athletics.atu.edu/volleyball/06spikefest-schedule.htm.

Sophomore Bobi Riley set a career high with 17 kills and hit .326 against Drury. All-American Tessa Jones, a junior, led the team with 18 kills and Mandi Cox led with a .355 attack percentage. She also had double figure kills with 14.

Freshman Kate Hampson had 56 assists in her debut. She added 11 digs and a pair of aces. Junior Erica Cowhick had 22 digs to lead the team.

The Lady Blues hit .195 as a team and had a .304 effort in the deciding game. The Panthers hit .179 as a team and were held to a .080 attack percentage in the fifth game.

Against TAMUC Jones led the team with 11 kills and hit .423. Cowhick and junior Bailey Saal each had double-figure digs with Cowhick leading the way with 16. Carolyn Raynes had 35 assists.

The Lady Blues hit .295 as a team while TAMUC hit just .021 and never held the lead.