#1 College of Charleston 3, #4 Chattanooga 0 (30-16, 30-15,
STATESBORO, GA ? The College of Charleston Cougars (29-1) remained unbeaten against Southern Conference institutions in 2005 and advanced to the championship match of the 2005 SoCon Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 shutout win over Chattanooga (19-14) at the Hanner Fieldhouse on the campus of Georgia Southern University.
The Cougars commenced the match with a dominating 30-16 victory, besting everything that the Mocs threw their way. Annie Uthe ended the game for the Cougars by softly touching the ball just off and over the net for the win.
All-SoCon second-team member Amanda Timmers was solid in the first stanza, matriculating eight kills and two digs in the first game. The eight kills left Timmers with and astounding hitting percentage of .800 in the opening game of the semifinal match.
The Mocs challenged the Cougars more in the second game of the contest, pulling to within two at 12-10 at one point in the game before the College of Charleston eventually pulled away, doubling up and downing the Mocs 30-15 in game two.
Timmers’ hitting percentage mark of .800 dipped a bit by the end of the second game, but her new percentage of .429 still left the 2004 SoCon tourney MVP with a good mark after two games.
Teammate Tiffany Blum finished her efforts after two games with a hitting percentage of .632 after garnering 13 kills on 19 total attacks.
The Cougars fought off myriad Chattanooga advances in the final game to tally a 30-19 win in the third and final game of the contest.
Blum finished the match with a hitting percentage of .462, while Timmers ended her efforts in the semifinal match with a mark of .409.
The Cougars’ Marie Dobrenz, who finished the match with 18 digs, now has 1597 digs for her career to place second all-time in College of Charleston history. Dobrenz is only two digs away from owning first place, as the Cougars all-time leader in the digs department is Stephanie Ballard, who finished her career with 1599.
In the same category, Chattanooga freshman Lara Newberry, the league’s 2005 Freshman and Libero of the Year, ended the loss for the Mocs with 16 digs to pad her newly recorded SoCon digs record. Newberry finishes the 2005 campaign with a total of 736.
She is the SoCon record owner and the only person in the league to record more than 700 digs in a season.
College of Charleston will look to remain unbeaten against SoCon teams once again in the 2005 SoCon Volleyball championship match. The Cougars will square off against Appalachian State at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Cougars will be vying to commandeer their third SoCon tourney crown in the last four years.
#2 Appalachian State 3, #6 Furman 1 (30-22, 28-30, 30-23, 30-25)
STATESBORO, GA ? Second-Seeded Appalachian State advanced to the championship match of the 2005 SoCon Volleyball Championship in four games at the Hanner Fieldhouse on the campus of Georgia Southern University.
The Mountaineers acquired a 30-25 victory in the fourth and final game to advance to the championship match of the tournament.
The match began with an eight-point Appalachian win in game one. The Mountaineers came out of the box quite differently than in their quarterfinal match against the Catamounts of Western Carolina, using all of their arsenal to procure the 30-22 victory.
All-SoCon second-team member Dianna Thomas led the charge for the Mountaineers in game one, garnering six kills on nine attacks to obtain a hitting percentage of .667.
Furman’s Emily Harby was no slouch herself despite the loss in game one for the Paladins, hitting a torrid .800 on four kills out of five chances in the game.
The lower-seeded Paladins placed themselves back into contention in the match in a tight second game, winning 30-28 and squaring the match at 1-1 entering the 10-minute intermission.
Furman’s Kerry Wooten picked up six kills to finish the first two games with 13 kills on 20 advances to own a hitting percentage of .550 through two games.
Appalachian was able to pick up a 2-1 advantage in match in game three despite a late Furman run. The Mountaineers were the owners of a sizable lead in the latter part of the third game, but the Paladins came storming back only to have their comeback aspirations debunked by second-seeded Appalachian in a 30-23 victory for the Mountaineers.
Appalachian’s Brittany Zahn ended the Mountaineer win with 15 kills and five digs, while Furman’s Wooten ended the match with 21 kills and a hitting percentage of .486.
Appalachian State will take the court against top-seeded College of Charleston at 2 p.m. at Hanner Fieldhouse in the championship match of the 2005 SoCon Volleyball Championship.
The Mountaineers will look to avenge a championship match loss to the Cougars in last year’s final where Appalachian succumbed to Charleston in four games. Appalachian will be trying to pick up their fifth SoCon tournament championship and their first since 1994 in the contest.