Jackson Pounds 25 Kills to Lift LIU to 3-1 Win over Columbia

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10/18/05 -- The Long Island University volleyball team - behind 25 kills from senior Lizelle Jackson - picked up its third straight victory Tuesday night, defeating Columbia, 3-1 (30-22, 31-29, 28-30, 30-14) in the Schwartz Center. The win is the Blackbirds (13-11) seventh in the last eight matches.

Jackson added 20 digs en route to her 17th double-double (kills/digs) this season. Classmate Jade Gold (Jupiter, Fla.) tallied 13 kills and seven blocks. Sophomores Martina Wagner and Trevon Dyson had 12 and 10 kills, respectively.

Senior Ivana Vasiljevic (Brcko, Bosnia & Herzegovina) paced LIU with 48 assists.

Three consecutive kills from Gold pushed the Blackbirds to a 26-16 lead in game one. A kill from Jackson- her fifth of the game- closed the scoring, 30-22.

The Lions made a strong run in the second game. Trailing by as many as seven points, Columbia ran off a 16-9 sprint to tie the contest at 29-29. Jackson ended the rally with a pair of kills to capture the 31-29 win.

Errors plagued the Blackbirds in game three as the Lions roared out of the gate to a 10-3 advantage. LIU battled back to pull to 27-26 after an attack error by Columbia. The lead see-sawed back-and-forth for the final seven points of the match with an LIU error giving the Lions the 30-28 win. The loss ended a eight-game win streak for the Blackbirds.

LIU closed out the match with a strong service from Gold in the fourth stanza. She recorded seven straight points- four coming on Lions errors and three courtesy of kills by Jackson- to move ahead 12-4. After Columbia picked up a point on a kill from Natalie Gerling, Vasiljevic served for the next four points for the Blackbirds to build an 18-5 cushion en route to the 30-14 triumph.

After eight straight matches at home, the Blackbirds hit the road this weekend for a pair of key conference matchups. LIU travels to Wagner (10/22) and Fairleigh Dickinson (10/23) for 7:00 and 4:00 p.m. contests, respectively.