The Citadel 3, Winston-Salem State 0
Charleston, S.C. ? Sophomore Rachel Sanders, freshman Taylor Stanke and senior Samantha Parisi all ripped double-digit kills Tuesday night as The Citadel swept the Rams of Winston-Salem State for the third time this season. Sophomore Emily Hill added 44 assists and six service aces to the Bulldog effort. Game scores were 30-15, 30-19 and 30-15.
Sanders put down 17 kills en route to an impressive .400 hitting percentage. Stanke recorded 15 kills on the night while Parisi had 14 kills alongside her five service aces. Parisi has now recorded 106 aces in her career, vaulting her to fifth in the school’s record books for career service aces. The Bulldogs recorded 58 kills on the night, compared to the Rams’ 17.
The Citadel (7-14, 1-6 SoCon) has now tied the program’s 2001 record for wins in a season, the second most number of wins a Bulldog team has compiled. Winston-Salem State (2-21) gave up a total of 15 Bulldog service aces, with Hill leading the way.
“We passed well as a team tonight,” said head coach Carolyn Geiger. “We minimized our hitting errors and that is something I have been looking for from this team for the past few matches. We executed well in our fundamentals. I hope we can take this momentum into this weekend’s contests when we play two conference rivals in Greensboro and Elon.”
Ciere Simpson’s six kills led Winston-Salem State as she hit .167. The only Ram to reach double-digits in any statistical category was Valentina Pushkina, who registered 11 assists. The Rams’ outblocked The Citadel, 7-2, with Simpson and Annika Barnwell each recording a block solo in the match.
The Citadel strolled to a 30-15 win in the first set behind six kills from Sanders and three aces from Hill. The Bulldogs dominated the hitting game, outswinging the Rams, .424 to .103. Parisi, Tiffany Edwards and Ashley Winter each recorded a service ace in the game, along with Hill.
The Bulldogs’ hitting percentage dropped to .239 in game two, but The Citadel still won a 30-19 decision that never had a tie score or lead change. Stanke led the Bulldog offense with six kills while Sanders and Parisi added five each. Hill jumped into the mix, adding three kills on four attempts for a .750 hitting percentage in the second game.
The Citadel led by as much as 20-9 in a dominating game three that seemed never in doubt. Sanders and Parisi mirrored each other in the third set as both girls recorded six kills with one error on nine attempts for a hitting percentage of.556. Parisi added three aces in the game for The Citadel
The Citadel returns to action Friday night as the Bulldogs return to SoCon action as they host the Spartans of UNC Greensboro at 7 p.m. in McAlister Field House.
Furman 3, Wofford 0
Greenville, S.C. -- Nicole Palazzo recorded a game-high 13 kills, and three Paladins reached double-figures in defensive saves as Furman defeated Wofford 3-0 on Tuesday night at Alley Gym.
Palazzo, the Southern Conference leader in hitting percentage, recorded 13 kills with just three errors and a .476 hitting percentage.
Stephanie Smith tallied a game-high 12 digs, while Ally Hock and Whitney Purser each added 11 defensive saves. Courtney Stewardson contributed 28 set assists, while Kerry Wooten recorded five total blocks.
Sarah Twitty and Liz Sheets both recorded nine kills for Wofford. Twitty also added 12 digs for the Terriers.
With the win, Furman improves to 10-9 overall, 6-2 in the Southern Conference. Wofford falls to 6-12 on the season, 1-8 in conference action.
Furman returns this action as the Paladins play host to Chattanooga on Saturday and Western Carolina on Sunday.
Davidson 3, Western Carolina 1
Cullowhee, N.C. ? Behind the double-double performances of junior Katie Pierucci and senior setter Jenna Dykstra, the Davidson Wildcats handed Western Carolina its third-consecutive loss, 3-1 (30-27, 30-22, 28-30, 30-24) Tuesday night in Southern Conference volleyball action at the Ramsey Center.
Pierucci finished with a match-high 22 kills and 14 digs while Dykstra passed out 52 assists and tallied 16 digs.
Western countered with one player in double figures as junior Meredith Harmon recorded 16 kills with just two errors for a team-high .400 attack percentage. Seniors Meghan Boyle and Heather Koontz, as well as freshman Brittny Johnson, all just missed double-digits finishing with nine kills apiece. Johnson just missed the double-double adding nine blocks, including two solo stops, as the Catamounts out blocked Davidson as a team, 12-to-3. Boyle added a dozen digs with Koontz doing one better, tallying the baker’s dozen with 13.
Freshman setter Katie Hennessey posted the only double-double on the night for the Catamounts, passing out 44 assists and coming up with 12 digs while adding five kills. Another rookie, Amanda Kerr, recorded seven kills on the night on a career-high hitting percentage, committing just one error on 18 total attacks for .333. Their classmate, libero Liz Rondone, finished with 24 digs in the loss.
“Hats off to Davidson ? they played phenomenal defense tonight, refusing to let the ball hit the floor. We had some opportunities but made a few mistakes here and there that began to mount and proved to be the difference makers,” said head coach Stephanie Dragan. “I am proud of the way the team fought, though, rallying from down two and fighting in game four. I felt that (Amanda) Kerr came off the bench and gave us the spark we needed in game three and Meredith (Harmon) hit the ball extremely well tonight.”
Western fell in a 2-0 hole before battling back to edge the Wildcats, 30-28, in a game three that was tied 12 times and saw the lead swapping hands seven times. The Catamounts (5-19, 1-7 SoCon) went back-and-forth with Davidson in game four, rallying from down 10-to-7 to score four-consecutive points to go ahead, 11-to-10 and force a timeout. However, after tying the match at 14, WCU could never pull closer than one, 22-21, and were outscored 8-to-3 to end things, 30-24.
Joining the Wildcats’ Pierucci in double-digits was sophomore Kittery Neale with 16 kills on a .406 attack percentage. Defensively for Davidson (11-10, 4-3 SoCon), libero Courtney Cron finished with 23 digs, while senior Lisa Cuellar had 15 and junior Lindsay Woeste recorded 14.
Western now embarks on a five-match road swing, visiting Wofford and Furman this weekend in the South Carolina upstate. The Catamounts face the Wofford Terriers in Spartanburg this Saturday at 2:00 pm before visiting the Furman Lady Paladins at 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoon.
Lipscomb 3, Chattanooga 0
Nashville, Tenn. ? The Lady Bison held Chattanooga to 25 kills as the Lady Mocs were swept Tuesday night, 15-30, 19-30, 21-30.
Chattanooga’s overall record drops to 7-12, while it stays 5-2 in conference play. Lipscomb’s record improves to 7-12.
Attack errors plagued the team as three of the first six points of the match came from errors. Junior Leslee Ball led the team with eight kills.
Lipscomb also tallied seven services aces with three coming from Alex Scruggs. Scruggs and Ashley Cox also added 13 kills each.
Game two started more promising for the Lady Mocs. The team took a 10-3 lead before allowing the Lady Bison to come back and score eight straight points.
Game three went back and forth before one more service error and hitting error by the Lady Mocs sealed the sweep.
Sophomore Michaela Huff had 21 assists of the team’s 25 kills, and junior Kelsey Amundson tallied a team-high 22 digs.
Sophomore libero Lara Newberry moved up the career list again with 19 digs to No. 7 with a total of 1,193.
Chattanooga takes a trip to Furman on Saturday and Wofford on Sunday. Match times are set for 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
UNC Greensboro 3, Liberty 1
GREENSBORO, NC ? Theresa Hart, Catherine Hanners and Lisa Fawell each set a school record to lead the UNC Greensboro women’s volleyball team to a 3-1 non-conference victory over Liberty on Tuesday evening at Fleming Gym.
UNCG (14-7) won by scores of 32-30, 28-30, 30-19 and 30-28.
All the records set were for a four-game match at UNCG. Hart recorded 26 kills and 25 digs to snap Kelley Evans’ kill mark of 25 set back in 1997 against Davidson.
Hanners came up with 36 digs to break the previous record of 31, which was posted by Rebekah Faulise against Georgia Southern on October 17, 2004. Meanwhile, Fawell’s 66 assists topped the 64 distributed by Robyn Jameson in 2000 against Georgia Southern.
In addition, sophomore Kaitlyn Nortz had 16 kills and six blocks, while junior Lauren Keiser put away a season-high 15 kills. Also, freshman Kayleigh Knerr had a season-high 27 digs.
Kendall Nichols led Liberty (5-12) with 15 kills and 15 digs, while May Alice Pike came up with 11 kills and 17 digs. Kallie Corbin led the Flames with 26 digs and 41 assists.
UNCG looked strong in the early going of game one with a 9-3 lead after a kill by Nortz. However, Liberty clawed back into it and made it a tight affair throughout. UNCG, which never trailed in the match, found itself in just the second tie of the game, 30-30, before a kill by Nortz and a Flame attack error game the Spartans a 1-0 lead with a 32-20 win. Hart paced UNCG with nine kills in game one.
Game two featured back and forth action will 11 lead changes. The Spartans led for the final time, 26-25, after a Liberty service error, but Pike came right back and squared the match with a kill to make it 26-26. With the game still tied up, 28-28, back-to-back attack errors by Hart gave Liberty a 30-28 win in game two.
After the intermission, UNCG came out and took control of game three with a
12-3 run midway through the game that gave the home team a 23-13 lead. The Flames never got closer than seven points the rest of the way as UNCG staked itself to a 2-1 lead with a commanding 30-19 win in game three. Hart had six points, while Nortz and Keiser each added three.
The fourth game mirrored the action of game two with both teams taking multiple leads throughout. But this time UNCG held on for the win. The game was tied for the final time, 26-26, when a crucial service error by Liberty put the Spartans ahead for good. Keiser would put the finishing touches on the match with a kill to send UNCG to its third straight win and fifth in the last seven games and improve to 4-1 at home.
UNCG gets back to Southern Conference action this weekend in Charleston, SC. The Spartans will play The Citadel on Friday at 7 pm and then take on the defending conference champion and first place College of Charleston on Saturday at 2 pm.