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It takes two, baby! Bears volleyball team wins twice; Coach Stokes' wife gives birth to baby girl

Posted 10/6/13

The SUNY Potsdam volleyball continued their winning ways by picking up two more victories in Newbury, Mass., on Saturday. The Bears (11-10 overall, 3-0 SUNYAC) have now won five of its' last six …

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It takes two, baby! Bears volleyball team wins twice; Coach Stokes' wife gives birth to baby girl

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The SUNY Potsdam volleyball continued their winning ways by picking up two more victories in Newbury, Mass., on Saturday.

The Bears (11-10 overall, 3-0 SUNYAC) have now won five of its' last six matches.

Both on Saturday came in a flash as Potsdam efficiently completed sweeps against Daniel Webster College (25-12, 25-10, 25-19) and host Newbury (25-9, 25-5, 25-14) to march through in about two hours of playing time.

Liza Fields (Duanesburg, N.Y. / Duanesburg) had 11 kills, Sara Anderson (Lake George, N.Y. / Lake George) had 10 kills and Lauren Manzo (Clovis, Calif. / San Joaquin) led with a team-high 26 assists and Jenna Blujus (Baldwinsville, N.Y. / C. W. Baker) had 10 digs in the Daniel Webster match. Freshman Sarah Becker (Troy, N.Y. / Tamarac) had her second-highest output of kills with seven. The Eagles fell to 5-7 on the season.

The Bears really spread it around in the Newbury match as six different players accounted for at least four kills (Blujus, Anderson, Becker, Manzo, Sharon Ofori, and Whitney Coyle) Coyle's five kills were a single-game career high. Manzo led once again in assists with 19 while Blujus led all Bears with 10 digs. The Nighthawks dropped to 10-12.

A growing positive trend for Potsdam has been its' improvement shown in recent matches from the service line. The Bears thrived again in that area as it produced 21 aces with Blujus recording seven and Manzo notching six.

In the Daniel Webster match, Potsdam enjoyed a 9-3 advantage in aces. Gabby Arana (Williston Park, N.Y. / Herricks) led the way with a season-high five.

" Jenna and Lauren really stepped in and took over the service line," said Potsdam assistant coach Carrie Corriveau, who was filling in for head coach Josh Stokes.

Coach Stokes was absent to support his wife, who gave birth to a baby girl over the weekend. The Stokes named her Piper Maleka Ann Stokes.

"Others contributed equally from the line and we had to make sure that our passing was in gear. Everybody gave a great effort from the entire team. We were able to spread it out. We rolled out the 5-1 offense with Lauren [Manzo] setting and Jenna [Blujus] playing the opposite side. Any time you're on the road and traveling, it's harder to win so it was really great to see them come in and take care of business."

Once again, Potsdam did not beat themselves. In the combined two matches, the Bears put up 72 kills against just 25 errors

Next weekend will loom large for Potsdam as the Bears will return home to Maxcy Field House and host SUNY Geneseo on Friday at 5 p.m. and then Plattsburgh State at 10 a.m. and Fredonia State at 3 p.m. on Saturday in three SUNYAC games.

"It's a very important weekend," Corriveau said. We have three tough opponents coming up. We have a lot more diversity now where players can play a lot of different positions and can come in and contribute so this will be interesting to see how we play against these teams."