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Women's Volleyball:
UC Irvine Loses to Liberty
Sept. 21, 2008 NOTRE DAME, Ind. --- UC Irvine suffered its second consecutive sweep, falling to Liberty, 25-17, 25-23, 28-26 Sunday at the Golden Dome Invitational. The Anteaters hit a season-low .133 as a team and dropped to 5-8 overall while Liberty climbed to 9-4. The Anteaters were led by Chelsea Ellis and Larissa Nordyke, who put away nine kills apiece. Ellis committed just two errors in 14 attempts to hit .500 while adding a pair of block assists. Devon Sutherland registered a match-high 18 digs while Taryn Roberson recorded 31 assists, a service winner and six digs. Liberty opened the match with a point and trailed the Anteaters just once in set. Trailing 9-8, the Anteaters went to Kari Pestolesi on consecutive plays to take a 10-9 lead but the Flames scored nine consecutive points to storm out to an 18-10 advantage and went on to win the set on a kill by Chelaine McCarty. Liberty took the early lead again in the second set, widening a two-point margin (9-7) to six with four straight points. The Anteaters cut the lead to one several times late in the set with the last coming at 24-23 on a kill from Nordyke and prompting a Liberty timeout. However, the Flames came out of the huddle and went to Brittany Pacella for the win.
The two teams battled in the final set with neither team trailing by more than three points. Behind 23-20, UCI strung together four consecutive points with Nordyke capping the run with a kill and give the Anteaters a 24-23 edge. However, Liberty rallied and the two teams traded the lead three times before the Flames, at 26-26, denied Pestolesi at the net and then won the match on an attack error by Nordyke.
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