2008 Woodie Awards
MT advances to Sweet 16
Blue Raiders win historic matches against Louisville, Hawaii
Clarence Plank
Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Sports
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Middle Tennessee currently has a 14 game winning streak as they downed Hawaii in their first meeting in Louisville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Ashley Adams recorded 22 kills, eight blocks assists and hit .306 in the series. Ashley Asberry collected 18 kills and hit .556 on Hawaii's defense.
The first game was easy going for MT as they took a 7-6 lead after an attacking error by Hawaii's Aneli Cubi-Otineru. Hawaii tied the match twice, but after the Blue Raiders got a break on a serving error by Hawaii.
Afterwards, the Raiders never looked back as they kept scoring points for a 30-22 win.
Game two was much the same as they got on top early in the match and never looked back for a second game win 30-18.
The Blue Raiders came out of halftime wanting to put away Hawaii, who had other plans scoring first and holding MT at first. MT rallied to tie the game 5-5 early in the match. Hawaii took advantage of MT to pull out a win, preventing a shutout.
Game four, MT came out swinging, scoring 4-0 before Hawaii could answer. Adams, Asberry and an attacking error by Hawaii gave them their edge.
Later on in the game, the Blue Raiders were down 27-26 after an attacking error on Asberry. Coach Matt Peck called a timeout to call the team over for a talk to calm his players down.
A kill by Asberry from Ashley Clark helped MT tie the game at 27. Clark gave the point away with an attacking error, 28-27.
Hawaii was set to win their second straight match, forcing a game five on the Blue Raiders. With the score knotted at 31 all, after a blocking error on Izabela Kozon, Adams got a kill to move the Blue Raiders into the lead for match point.
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