COLUMBUS, Ohio – The host Crusader volleyball team won both of its matches on the first day of play at the 2008 Capital Volleyball Invitational on Friday. CU beat Adrian (Mich.) College 3-1 (25-21, 25-15, 25-27, 25-22) before sweeping Hanover (Ind.) College 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-23).
In the opening match of the day, Capital out-hit Adrian .206 to .116 as senior Jackie Helm (Lancaster, Ohio/Fisher Catholic HS) and freshman Emily Heitmeyer (Ottawa, Ohio/Ottawa Glandorf HS) led the charge with 10 kills each. Helm added 15 digs and four service aces to finish with a double-double for the Crusaders.
The duo of Kara Guster (Orrville, Ohio/Orrville HS) and Jenna Zumberger (De Graff, Ohio/Fairlawn HS) controlled play throughout with 26 and 17 assists, respectively, while leading the team to a .387 hitting percentage in a 25-15 rout of the Bulldogs in the second set. Zumberger also had 10 digs and three assists of her own.
Defensively, junior libero Sara Doebel (Clyde, Ohio/Clyde HS) picked up 13 digs for a Crusader defense that never allowed the Bulldogs to hit above .241 in any of the four sets in the match.
Capital continued its strong play in its finale on Friday with three-set sweep of Hanover as CU posted a .264 team hitting percentage on the strength of 15 assists from Guster who also had seven digs.
Helm finished with another strong all-around performance with team-bests of nine kills, eight digs and three service aces.
The Crusader defense stepped up to post 8.0 blocks and tally 39 digs as the duo of senior Kelly Steinman (New Bremen, Ohio/New Bremen HS) and junior Allison Hostetler (Dalton, Ohio/Dalton HS) finished with four blocks each.
Doebel and Zumberger added seven digs each for Capital, which will return to action against Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.) at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.