Madonna's Abraham earns 1,000th victory
It was an appropriate way for Madonna University head volleyball coach Jerry Abraham to collect the 1,000th victory of his 26-year career.
Friday night at Siena Heights, the Crusaders made quick work of the Saints winning 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-21) to in turn enable Abraham to become the fastest to reach the coaching milestone. His record now stands at 1,000-261.
With the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference victory, conference champion Madonna also nailed down the team's first berth in the NAIA national tournament since 2008. Moreover, Madonna will host itIt will be Abraham's 12th appearance in the tourney.
I'm not into the individual stuff but to be honest I was nervous all day long because of the magnitude of the 1,000th game, said Abraham, a Plymouth Township resident. It allowed us to get to nationals, host the conference tournament and it's really about the players. It really is.
Madonna hosting the nationals will be a big plus for our fans and our players. Everyone likes to play at home. We've got a week to get prepared and we're really excited about it.
Early jump
The opening game against Siena Heights quickly went MU's way as the Crusaders built a 15-3 lead following service runs by junior setter Evia Prieditis (five points), sophomore outside hitter Samantha Geile (three points) and sophomore libero Amanda Obrycki (four points).
The first two sets we established the middle and were very tough in the middle if we got a good pass, Abraham noted. We felt we had a mismatch in the middle with our size and our experience. The middle really clicked in the first game.
Even so, Siena Heights (16-10, 5-6) put up a tougher battle in the middle set. It was 16-15 in favor of the Saints when Prieditis tallied a sideout slam for the Crusaders, off a feed from Geile.
Two service points by junior outside hitter Stacey Catalano both thanks to blocks by senior middle hitter Nastija Baranovska gave MU the lead and Siena Heights could not respond.
!Madonna (30-7 overall, 10-1 in the WHAC) also had to rally to finish off the third game, trailing nearly the entire way. Siena Heights built an 18-12 edge only to finally get caught 21-21 on a Saints' attack error.
Siena Heights regained the lead (23-22) but MU senior Taylor Dziewit tallied a kill off an assist from Prieditis to get the equalizer.
The Crusaders then pulled ahead and clinched the game and match on two points served up by Geile, with attack errors by Siena Heights players each time.
Sparking the MU offense was Geile, with 11 kills. She chipped in with six defensive digs.
Other contributors for the Crusaders included Catalano, Baranovska, Dziewit and junior middle hitter Emilee Freeman (six kills each) and Prieditis (32 assists).
Helping the cause with 12 digs was Obrycki, while Catalano and Geile tallied seven and six digs, respectively.
For Siena Heights, Halie Baker (11 kills), Lindsey Adams (10 kills, 10 digs) and Carly Tillotson (25 assists, nine digs) were top performers.
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