College of Charleston 3, Appalachian State 2

BOONE, N.C. ? Senior Stefanie Panzer recorded a career-high 23 kills for the Mountaineers as the Appalachian State University volleyball team dropped a hard-fought match to defending Southern Conference champion College of Charleston, 3-2 (30-20, 30-18, 19-30, 27-30, 6-15) Friday, Oct. 7 at the Holmes Center.

With the loss, the Mountaineers drop to 10-7 overall and 3-2 in the SoCon, while the Cougars remain in first place in the conference with a 15-1 overall record and a perfect 7-0 conference mark.

The two teams, in a rematch from the SoCon championship game a year ago, were evenly matched, as ASU recorded 79 kills, 11 total blocks and 85 digs as a team while CofC tallied 72 kills, 12 total blocks and 87 digs.

Panzer (Mt. Gilead, N.C.) hit a match-high .463 on the night (23 kills, four errors, 41 attacks) and added three block assists and nine digs. The senior got help from sophomore setter Lorelle Rau (Oakland Park, Fla.) who tallied a career-high 63 set assists, seven kills and two solo blocks in the match.

Junior Chrissy Finch (Lake Zurich, Ill.) tied a season-high with 18 kills and 17 digs in her first game at outside hitter in nearly a month. Two other Mountaineers hit in double-digits as sophomores Dianna Thomas (Mobile, Ala.) and Brittany Zahn (Charlotte, N.C.) tallied 11 kills apiece.

Senior Kali Rumberger (Spokane, Wash.) recorded 21 digs in her return to the libero position. Freshman Charissa Clearman (Austin, Texas) added a career-high 11 digs, playing in all five games for the Apps.

The Cougars had four players hit in double-digits, led by Tiffany Blum and Rebecca Wieters with 16 kills apiece. Blum added five total blocks.

Amanda Timmers recorded a double-double for CofC with 15 kills and 19 digs, while Marie Dobrenz led the defense with 23 digs. Setter Kaycie Carr recorded 58 assists in the match.

The first game started off close with the two teams exchanging points. With the score 24-19 in favor of ASU, the Mountaineers pulled away, going on a 6-1 run behind the serving of Finch to take game one, 30-20.

The Apps jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead in game two and never looked back, taking the second game, 30-18, and a 2-0 match-lead. Finch led the Mountaineers with seven kills and nine digs in the game.

After intermission, the Cougars came out fired up. With the game tied at seven, College of Charleston out-scored Appalachian, 23-12 to take game three, 30-19 cutting into Appalachian’s two game match-lead.

College of Charleston jumped out to a quick lead in game two, but Appalachian didn’t quit, tying the game at 26. Timmers recorded three kills in the final four points for the Cougars as they went on to take game four, 30-27 and tie the match at two games apiece.

The Cougars controlled game five from the beginning, taking a quick 10-3 lead. They never looked back, going on to win the decisive match, 15-6, and the match, 3-2.

The Mountaineers continue their homestand, hosting The Citadel on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Holmes Center.

ELON, N.C. ? Whitney Purser recorded a match-high 22 kills along with 10 digs to lead the Lady Paladins of Furman to a 3-0 win over the Elon Phoenix in a Southern Conference match on Friday night in Alumni Gym. Furman took the games by scores of 30-27, 31-29, 30-27.

The night was a battle from the beginning as game one witnessed 13 ties and four lead changes with neither team ever leading by more than three. The last tie came at 26-26 when Purser registered a kill to knot the score. The Lady Paladins then recorded three points behind the serve of Molly Rybak to go ahead 29-26 before a kill by Britany Westphal gave the Phoenix a point and the serve at 29-27. But a service error by Elon ended the game 30-27 in favor of Furman.

Elon (3-13, 1-4) jumped out to an early lead in game two and led by as much as six for most of the contest before Furman closed the gap. Down by six, 24-18, the Lady Paladins went on a 7-0 run, behind four kills from Purser, to take a 25-24 advantage. Elon used Furman errors and a block by Ashley Rucker and Emily Lucci to take the lead back at 27-25 but Furman tied the game 27-27 on a Purser kill and an Elon error. Elon took the 29-27 advantage before back-to-back kills from Purser tied it up at 29-29 and the Lady Paladins closed the game 31-29.

Game three saw 13 ties and six lead changes. Tied at 25-25, Furman went on a 4-0 run capped by a kill from Chibuzo Aguocha to go ahead 29-25. Elon fought back to within two at 29-27 on a kill from Lucci and a Lady Paladin error before Aguocha finished the game at 30-27 with a kill.

Lucci led Elon’s offense with 16 kills and only five errors on 24 attempts for a .324 hitting percentage while Juliena Gigon added 10 kills for the Phoenix. Emily Downing led the defense with 13 digs and Brooke Pickard posted 10 digs while Kate Hart tallied 24 assists and Natalie Moore notched 15.

Purser hit .326 on the night with only eight errors on 43 attempts with 22 kills. Kim Tonkin led the Furman defense with 12 digs and Ally Hock added 10 while Rybak posted 36 assists.

Furman (6-10, 2-4) returns to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. at UNC Greensboro and Elon takes the court again on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Wofford.

Chattanooga 3, Georgia Southern 2

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? The Chattanooga volleyball team rallied from an 8-6 deficit in game five on the strength of five consecutive blocks and defeated Georgia Southern 3-2 (25-30, 30-23, 30-26, 22-30, 15-10) on Alumni Night to give the Eagles their first Southern Conference loss of the season Friday night at Maclellan Gym.

Chattanooga trailed the Eagles 8-6 and the two teams switched courts in the deciding game. Sophomore Sarah Bass laid down a kill to pull the Lady Mocs to within one and an attack error by Georgia Southern tied it up 8-8. Sophomore Julianna Martinez tallied two solo blocks and assisted on two more to pull the Lady Mocs ahead of the Eagles 12-8 on a six-point scoring run.

Bass notched two more kills for match point at 14-10 and an attack error by the the league’s volleyball Player of the Month, Iulia Porumbescu sealed the game for Chattanooga. The Lady Mocs even out at 9-9 and move to 4-2 in league play. Georgia Southern goes to 11-6 on the year and 4-1 in the SoCon.

Freshman libero Lara Newberry missed a school-record for digs by two grinding out 44 on the night. Galloway recorded her ninth double-double of the year with a team-high 20 kills and 15 digs. Junior Amanda Durfee saw significant playing time tonight and notched her first double-double of the year with 10 kills and 19 digs. Bass tallied 13 kills. Martinez had nine kills and five blocks. Sophomore setter Bethany Herndon totaled 46 assists and Michael Huff chipped in 12.

Porumbescu led three Georgia Southern players in double-doubles with a game-high 24 kills and 24 digs. Bailey Coleman also recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 11 digs while Christy Dowd contributed 19 kills and 11 digs.
The Eagles had 78 kills to Chattanooga’s 68, but the Lady Mocs outdid GSU in digs 105-95.

After falling by five in game one, the Lady Mocs rallied to win game two and after the break, took the third. Georgia Southern bounced back to take the fourth game to force the deciding game. In the fifth game it looked like the Lady Mocs would not be able to finish the match for the win, but with a crowd of nearly 300 looking on and several Lady Mocs Alumni, Chattanooga stepped up and wouldn’t let the Eagles’ offense get the ball past the net with five straight blocks.

Chattanooga will return to the court Friday, Oct. 14 with a conference match against Elon at Maclellan Gym. Game time is set for 7 p.m. The Eagles will travel to Cullowhee, N.C., for a Sunday afternoon SoCon match at Western Carolina at 2 p.m.