WASHINGTON, D.C. (10/3/09) – Kaleigh Durket (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) and Maureen Colligan (Odessa, Fla.) each tallied 13 kills as Colgate downed defending Patriot League champion American 14-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-23, Saturday evening at Bender Arena.
Colgate, which improved to 6-9 overall and 3-1 in league play, snapped an 18-match skid versus the Eagles in the process. The Raiders' last victory over American, which has captured eight consecutive regular season and Patriot League Tournament titles, was the first ever meeting between the two schools back in 1996.
“We played with a ton of focus tonight,” said Colgate head coach Ryan Baker. “We got contributions from everywhere on the court. Our passers did a great job getting the ball to the setters and the setters did a phenomenal job distributing the ball.
“We talked about three things after the first game that we needed to improve on,” continued Baker. “First, we needed to get better defensively and play with more intensity. Second, we needed to serve better and finally we needed to stay composed and not let one bad game get to us. Tonight, we got key blocks at key times and got some big time kills when we needed them. This was more of a mental victory for us since we haven't been successful against American in quite some time.”
Durket torched American's defense with a .520 hitting percentage (13-0-25). The freshman added six digs and five block assists in the win. Aside from Colligan's 13 kills, Kaylee Dougherty (Landisville, Pa.) was the third Raider with 10 or more kills in the victory. The sophomore tallied 11 on the evening.
Colgate's block came up huge as the Raiders tallied a season best 14 team blocks. The middle blocking duo of Casey Ritt (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Dougherty was formidable at the net. Ritt posted seven blocks on the evening, while Dougherty was credited with five block assists. Colligan and Durket joined in the block parade with six and five-block assist evenings. Logan Keala (Kaneohe, Hawaii) collected both block solos for Colgate.
“All week we talked about getting better on defense and the team has bought into this,” said Baker. “They realize that blocking and digging will win championships. We blocked well against Army, Albany and now against American.”
Meghan Fanta (Hillsboro, Wisc.) posted 25 digs on the evening to move by former Bucknell standout Shannon Pitsch for eighth on the all-time Patriot League assist charts with 3,620 in her career. Blaire Safir (Oakland, Calif.) dished out 18 assists in the victory.
Defensively, Devon Applegate (Davidson, N.C.), the league's top digger, notched a match-high 15 digs to lead the charge, while Keala and Fanta posted 12 and 11 digs respectively.
American, which fell to 8-9 overall and 2-2 in league play, was led by Magdalena Tekiel's match-high 21 kills. Cassandra Ricketts and Angelina Waterman each had 11 kills in the loss.
Colgate returns to action Tuesday evening at Syracuse. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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