Mount St. Joseph Tops Washington & Lee In First Match of NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Tournament

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The fifth-seeded Mount St. Joseph Lions avenged a loss to the fourth-seeded Washington & Lee Generals in the latter part of the 2008 regular season, cruising to a 3-0 victory in an NCAA Division III Tournament first round match at Wittenberg's Pam Evans Smith Arena.

The win, the Lions' sixth in a row, moved Mount St. Joseph to 29-10 on the season and into the Great Lakes Regional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Friday, also at Wittenberg. Washington & Lee, regular season and tournament champion of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, saw its eight-match winning streak end to finish the season with a record of 31-7.

In winning by set scores of 25-22, 25-18, 25-23, the Lions controlled action throughout. In fact, Mount St. Joseph never trailed in Sets 1 or 3 and just briefly in the second set.

Setter Katie Playko was key as she recorded 34 of the Lions' 35 assists in the match, and she also added seven kills against just one error for an attack percentage of .500. Jess Gadberry led both teams with 14 kills - just as importantly she did not have an error in 27 attacks for a blistering .519 hitting percentage.

Defensively, the Lions were paced by Anna Richter with 16 digs and Jamie Grauvogel with 11. Those two also added six kills apiece.

The Generals were paced offensively by 28 assists from Megan Steinhardt and 11 kills from Rachael Phillips, while the defense was led by Steinhardt's 18 digs. Washington & Lee was hurt by six ball-handling errors and five service return errors, in addition to being outscored on blocks 4-2 by the Lions.