April Emory
September 14, 2005 The Virginia Union University Lady Panthers defeated the Elizabeth City State University Lady Vikings in a hard fought game Tuesday evening at Barco-Stevens Hall in Richmond, VA. Although the Lady Panthers swept the match 3 games to none (30-23, 30-24,30-23), the Lady Vikings used a strong defensive effort with 14 total team blocks, forcing the defending CIAA Eastern Division Champions to earn every point. Led by junior Tara Blakeney, who finished the evening with 5 solo and 3 assisted blocks, the Lady Vikings found their rhythm through their defense, rejecting many of the Lady Panthers’ aggressive advances. However it would be ECSU’s lack of offense that would ultimately lead to their undoing. As a team, the Lady Vikings finished with only 14 kills against 22 errors. On the other hand, led by Michaela Vanakova’s 16 kills, VUU amassed 41 kills with 15 points scored via service aces. Virginia Union improves to 3-4 overall and remains undefeated in conference play with a record of 2-0. ECSU suffers its first loss of 2005, slipping to 3-1 overall, 2-1 in the CIAA. The Lady Vikings will return to action September 16-17, 2005 as they travel to Fayetteville, NC for the annual volleyball round-up. Over the weekend, ECSU will do battle with the teams from the CIAA Western Division. They will begin the six-match pilgrimage on Friday afternoon at 4:00pm when they match up against Fayetteville State University. For more info on this weekend’s events and all ECSU athletics, log onto www.ecsuvikings.com.
