Shorewomen Take Final Two Sets, Finish Off Gophers

Chalk Attains Milestone with 20-Kill, 23-Dig Performance

TOWSON, Md. — After dropping the opening set, Goucher battled back to take a 2-1 lead in its match tonight against Washington (Md.) and was two points away from finishing off the Shorewomen by winning the fourth set.

The Gophers, however, committed an untimely service error followed by a hitting error that gave the Shorewomen the two points they needed to capture the fourth set.

In the decisive fifth set, Goucher fought off two match points thanks to a kill by Addie Lanzarotta (Los Angeles, Calif./Culver City) and a hitting error by the opponent. But then the Gophers were guilty of another service error — their 17th of the match — while trying to tie the score at 14-14, giving Washington the match-clinching point and a 3-2 triumph.

Set scores were 25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13.

It was the third five-set match for head coach Michael Bossom's squad in the past six days.

The Gophers (7-19) found themselves down 6-1 in the second set, but went ahead for good on a kill by Sabina Smajlovic (Hartford, Conn./Miss Porter's School) that made the score 18-17.

The lead changed hands three times and the score was knotted up on four separate occasions in third third set. The Shorewomen (9-11), who trailed 20-15 at one point, closed to within 24-23 on a service error, but Smajlovic provided the Gophers with their 25th point by knocking down one of the seven kills she was credited with in the match.

Although Goucher was up 10-6 at one point in the fourth set, the two teams were never separated by more than three points after Washington rallied to even the score at 12-12 on a kill by Jenny Lee. Down the stretch, the Gophers earned crucial points on a block by Hannah Kuehl (Plymouth, N.H./Plymouth Regional) to level the score at 22-22 and a kill by Sarah Johnson (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood), making it 23-23, before the Shorewomen won the final two points.

Megan Chalk (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park), who has been chasing career milestones of 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs, attained one of them with tonight's 20-kill, 23-dig performance against the Shorewomen. Although she remains 70 kills away from 1,000, the junior outside hitter needed only 14 digs to surpass the four-figure target.