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VB wins two at the Pepperdine Classic; Milos named All-Tourney


BlueGold

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The ladies opened the 2014 season by going 2-1 at the Pepperdine Asics Classic in Malibu this weekend.  They lost to Nevada 3-0 on Friday in their first match but came back to beat South Alabama and Pepperdine on Saturday, both by 3-1 scores.
 
Team Records:
Nevada 2-1
Pepperdine 2-1
ORU 2-1
South Alabama 0-3
 
Nevada won the three-way tiebreaker to take home the team title.  Pepperdine placed second, followed by the Golden Eagles and South Alabama.  Without knowing what the tiebreakers were, I'm assuming Nevada won the title because of their win over ORU, and Pepperdine finished second because they beat Nevada and ORU didn't, so even though ORU beat Pepperdine, the second-place tiebreaker was based on the Nevada result for both teams.
 
Freshman Laura Milos was the star in both wins, with 29 kills in each, and was named to the All-Tournament Team.  She led all players with 63 kills and hit an impressive .324 on 136 kill attempts.  And she was hardly one-dimensional, adding four service aces, 13 digs and four blocks in three matches.  She's the first Golden Eagle since 2007 to post 20 or more kills in back-to-back matches.
 
Along with Milos, freshmen Lucija Bojanjac, Shelby Cox and Maggie DiPronio made their ORU debuts and played well, contributing much to the team's success.  Bojanjac moved in as the starting setter and averaged over 11 assists per set.  Cox started all three matches at middle hitter/blocker, chipping in with 11 kills and five blocks.  DiPronio was a jack-of-all-trades, coming off the bench to spark the Golden Eagles defensively with 22 total digs and on her serve.  In the match against Pepperdine, ORU was already down a set and fell behind 11-7 in the second set before she took her turn at serve.  She racked up four aces as part of a 7-0 run that turned the tide and gave the Golden Eagles momentum that carried them to the second-set win and a sweep of the next two sets for the 3-1 road victory. 
 
ORU next plays in another tournament, the Dr. Mary Jo Winn Invitational hosted by Missouri State in Springfield.  The Golden Eagles open the tourney this Thursday (Sept. 4th) against the host Bears, then play Milwaukee on Friday, Sept. 5th and Western Kentucky and Incarnate Word on Saturday, Sept. 6th.
 
Go Eagles!!
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thanks BlueGold...a nice bounce back for the ladies after falling to Nevada.   it sounds like ORU has two stars in the making with the freshman Croats.  it seems wierd to look at the roster and see no Brazilians.

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I agree, it is weird not seeing at least one Brazilian on the roster and it's probably not a coincidence.  Longtime assistant and Brazilian native Jani Hagen left after last season.  She'd been in charge of international recruiting since coming back to ORU as an assistant in 2003 and it would've been natural for her to look to her home country for players.  Just as natural as Coach Sirola going back to the Balkans, where she's from, and using her connections there to find players as she's done in each of the last three years-- Jovana Poljasevic (Bosnia & Herzegovina-2012), Nika Mostahinic (Croatia-2013) and Laura Milos & Lucija Bojanjac (Croatia-2014).

 

Speaking of Milos, what she did kill-wise in the two wins at Pepperdine was impressive to say the least.  After only five kills and a negative hitting percentage against Nevada she had 29 kills in four sets against South Alabama less than 18 hours later, then followed that up with another 29-kill effort in four sets against Pepperdine on the same day about nine hours later.  And Pepperdine knew what she'd done against South Alabama and still couldn't stop her.  Impressive for any player, let alone a freshman playing in just her second and third matches ever as a collegian.  I'm sure she'd give credit to Bojanjac, her setter, for feeding her all day.

 

It's encouraging to see the ladies pick themselves up and play well in the wins, and to see that our freshmen can play right away.

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Very nice write up and analysis. I appreciate the effort you took to inform us about the team and their matches. I am hoping ORU can regain its former place as a top 20 program.

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Thanks ORUTerry, it's my pleasure.  A return to glory would be more than welcome.  I'll be rooting for them to have a very successful season, along with all of our other teams.

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