Elon 3, College of Charleston 2
CHARLESTON, S.C.- Elon came back from a 0-2 defecit to down College of Charleston 3-2 in Southern Conference volleyball action on Sunday afternoon. Elon snaps CofC's home conference win streak at 49 matches and conference win streak at 40. CofC last dropped a SoCon match on Sept. 22, 2004 to Georgia Southern in Statesboro in five games.
In the first game, CofC took an early lead and did not look back. The Cougars posted a .652 hitting percentage in the game and finished with a 30-16 win.
After an 8-8 tie in the second game, Elon scored the next four points to go ahead 12-8. Down by four at 17-13, CofC outscored the Phoenix to knot the game 17-17. After an 18-18 tie, the Cougars took the lead and extended the advantage to as much as five at 27-22. Elon fought back to within one at 29-28, but the Cougars closed the game 30-28 on a kill from Emily Sawin.
The Cougars went up early in the third game and led 17-12. Elon tallied the next five points to tie the game 17-17. After a 19-19 tie, CofC took the edge and led by as mcuh as six at 28-22. Elon used a 7-1 run to tie the game 29-29. After a 31-31 tie, the Phoenix earned the next two points on Cougar attack errors to close the game 33-31.
In game four, the Cougars took a five-point lead at 12-7 before Elon tied the game 12-12. The teams traded points until a 20-20 tie. Elon scored the next three point to go up 23-20. The Phoenix held onto that lead and finished the game 30-25.
Elon started game five with a 2-0 advantage after back-to-back kills by Jessica Barrow. But the Cougars caught up quickly and tied the game 2-2. After a 6-6 tie, Elon used a service ace, a block, a CofC attack error and a kill to go ahead 10-6. With Elon ahead 14-8, the Cougars tallied two points to get within four at 14-10. After a Phoenix timeout, Elon closed the game 15-10 on a block by Emily Lucci and Emily Downing.
Barrow led Elon with a career-high 19 kills. She posted a .281 hitting percentage after having just three errors on 57 attempts. Brooke Pickard paced the defense with 18 digs while Lucci tallied 11 total blocks and added nine kills. Natalie Moore tallied 36 assists for the Phoenix.
Tiffany Blum and Sawin led the Cougars with 18 kills a piece while Uthe added 11 and Patrick contributed 10. Marie Dobrenz posted a match-high 23 digs while Alexis Lowes added 21. Megan Parkerson tallied 13 digs and Sawin added 12. Lindsey Kane added 53 assists for CofC.
Elon returns to action on Tuesday night in a 7 p.m. match at UNC Greensboro.
Furman 3, Western Carolina 0
Greenville, S.C. -- Furman hit a season high .455, and the Paladins outblocked the Catamounts 9-1 as Furman defeated Western Carolina 3-0 (30-20, 30-19, 30-19) on Sunday afternoon at Alley Gymnasium. With the win, Furman won three straight conference matches this week, each by a 3-0 score.
Furman was led on the afternoon by Kerry Wooten with 13 kills and five blocks (one solo). Ally Hock added 10 kills and eclipsed the 1,000 kills mark for her career, becoming just the 14th player in Furman history to top 1,000 kills.
Courtney Stewardson recorded 31 set assists on the day, and Kelsey Salava added 15 in one game of action. Stephanie Smith contributed 14 defensive saves, and added four service aces. Kim Tonkin also reached double-figures with 12 digs.
Western Carolina was led by Meredith Harmon with a game-high 16 kills. Liz Rondone had 15 digs, and Katie Hennesey added 24 assists for the Catamounts.
Furman recorded 55 kills on the match, with just nine hitting errors in
101 attempts. Seven of Furman’s eight players with an attack attempt recorded a hitting percentage of .389 or better, including Alison West, who had seven kills and no errors in 10 total attempts (.700).
With the win, Furman improves to 12-9 on the season, 8-2 in the Southern Conference. The loss drops Western Carolina to 6-20 on the year, 2-8 in conference play. Furman returns to action on Friday as the Paladins travel to face Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Ga.
Davidson 3, Georgia Southern 1
DAVIDSON, N.C.? Junior outsider hitter Katie Pierucci posted a season-high 31 kills with a .436 hitting clip to lead the Davidson Wildcats to a 3-1 (32-30, 16-30, 30-24, 30-18) win over the Georgia Southern Eagles in Southern Conference volleyball action on Sunday afternoon at Belk Arena.
Pierucci?s 31 kills were just two shy of her career-high 33, posted on Oct. 3, 2004 at Chattanooga. With the win, the Wildcats improve to 13-11 overall and 5-4 in SoCon play, while Chattanooga evens to 8-8 overall and just 2-6 in the conference.
Senior outside hitter Liz Williamson joined Pierucci in double-digits with 18 kills to go along with 11 digs on the defensive end, while senior setter Jenna Dykstra totaled a match-high 55 assists.
For the Eagles, Christy Dowd led the GSU?s attack with 10 kills, but she hit just a .025 in the match.
Davidson held a 6-2 advantage in game one, but the Eagles got things knotted at 11-11, and then again at 13-13. GSU went ahead 17-14, but junior Lindsey Woeste served four straight points to put the Wildcats back on top 20-17.
With the Cats unable to build on the lead, the score was tied five times, and as late as 30-30, In the extra action, sophomore outside hitter Megan Parks and Neale posted back-to-back kills to lift Davidson to a 32-30 victory.
Game two was tight at the beginning, but the Eagles put together a couple big runs, including a eight-point serve by Natalie Rodriguez, to take a 19-9 lead that the ?Cats could never overcome. Williamson answered with four straight points to pull the ?Cats within seven at 20-13, but GSU went on to a fairly easy 30-16 win to even the match at one game apiece.
In the third game, Davidson jumped out to the a large 10-3 lead before the Eagles went on a 4-0 run to close the gap to 10-8. And though the Eagles would battle and stay close during game three, a kill from Woeste eventually put them away for a 30-24 victory to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Georgia Southern took a 5-1 lead in game four, but the ?Cats refused to quit, getting things knotted at six and then trading points until the Eagles finally took a 9-8 edge. GSU maintained the lead, holding a 13-11 advantage when Williamson served for five straight points to put the ?Cats on top for good. Davidson took a 16-14 lead and built on it for the remainder of the game, as Williamson?s 18th kill of the match lifted the ?Cats to a 30-18 victory for the match.
Davidson will return to action next weekend, traveling to Southern Conference rivals The Citadel (Sat., Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.) and the College of Charleston (Sun., Oct. 22 at 2 p.m.).
Chattanooga 3, Wofford 0
Spartanburg, S.C. ? The Lady Mocs hit .226 en route to sweeping Wofford Sunday afternoon 30-25, 30-21, 30-22.
Junior Jamie Engel led the attack with nine kills, followed by juniors Leslee Ball and Julianna Martinez, who each had eight.
The Lady Mocs improve its record to 8-13, 6-3 SoCon. And Wofford falls to 6-14, 1-10 in Southern Conference play.
Sophomore Michaela Huff recorded 39 assists on the team’s 44 kills, and she added seven digs.
Three players were racked up double digit defensive digs out of the team’s 69 total. Sophomore Lara Newberry led the way with 15, then junior Kelsey Amundson had 13 and Ball had 11.
Ball also added one block solo and four block assists. Bass added five block assists, and Martinez added four block assists on the team’s nine total blocks.
Wofford’s Shanna Hughes led the Terriers with 10 kills. And on the defensive side, Shana Glenn and Sarah Twitty both added 16 digs.
Martinez continues to make her way up the career block assists list tying for fifth with 188.
The Lady Mocs host Western Carolina on Tuesday, Oct. 17, starting the second round of conference play before heading to North Carolina for the weekend to visit UNC Greensboro and Elon on Saturday and Sunday.