UNCG 3, The Citadel 0
GREENSBORO, NC ? The UNC Greensboro women’s volleyball team posted an impressive .484 hitting percentage in winning its 20th match of the year with a comfortable 3-0 sweep of The Citadel in Southern Conference action Friday evening at Fleming Gym.
UNCG notched its first 20-win season since 1995 by winning the match by scores of 30-11, 30-12 and 30-18.
Senior Theresa Hart had a team-leading 12 kills to lead UNCG (20-11, 9-8 SoCon), while classmate Hilary Overby had 11 kills on a.647 hitting percentage with zero attack errors.
Sophomore Kaitlyn Nortz, who hit an incredible .684 percentage in the first meeting this year, put away nine kills, while freshmen Branagan Fuller and Emily Lindborg had eight and six kills respectively.
Freshman Lisa Fawell handed out 45 assists. Catherine Hanners had 9 digs.
Taylor Stanke led The Citadel (10-22, 2-15 SoCon) with six kills, while Rachel Sanders had five kills in the loss. Emily Hill had 15 assists and Samantha Parisi had a team-leading seven digs.
The Citadel and UNCG were tied 5-5 in the early part of game one when UNCG went on a 21-4 run that put the Spartans in control up 26-9. They would go on to a 30-11 win in the opening game. Hart led the way with six kills in game one.
UNCG carried the momentum into game two and went on to a 30-12 win to go up 2-0 heading to the intermission. Hart added six more kills and gave her 473 for the year, which is two shy of third place on the all-time single season list, held by Missi Olson in 1990.
In game three, UNCG led by a narrow 18-15 score, but scored six straight points and went on to a 30-18 win.
UNCG wraps up its regular season against first place College of Charleston at Fleming Gym on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm. It’s Senior Day. Christin Heverly, Hart and Overby will be honored with a brief ceremony before the match.
College of Charleston 3, Elon 1
ELON, N.C. ? The College of Charleston Cougars used four players in double-digit kills to take a 3-1 (30-24, 30-16, 33-35, 30-26) victory in Southern Conference volleyball action on Friday night in Alumni Gym. The Cougars moved to 22-7 overall and 16-1 in the league while Elon falls to 11-17, 8-9.
Tiffany Blum led CofC with 16 kills along with five total blocks. Deanna Patrick and Emily Sawin each registered 15 kills. Marie Dobrenz paced the Cougar defense with a match-high 25 digs. Megan Parkerson added 15 digs and Alexia Lowes contributed 11. Annie Uthe posted four service aces, six total blocks and eight kills while Lindsey Kane recorded 57 assists along with 17 digs, three aces, three total blocks and six kills.
Britany Westphal led the Phoenix with 12 kills while Mandy Wilson added 11 and Juliena Gigon posted 10. Brooke Pickard led the Elon defensive effort with 20 digs while Emily Downing added 15 and Ashley Ruckert posted 10. Stefanie Meyers registered six total blocks along with three aces and nine kills while Natalie Moore notched 42 assists.
Sawin led the Cougars in game one with six kills and no errors on nine attempts. Tied at 5, the Cougars used a 6-0 run behind the serve of Sawin to take an 11-6 lead. CofC maintained the advantage through the remainder of the game and finished at 30-24 on a kill from Blum.
In game two, the Cougars tallied a .581 hitting percentage posting 19 kills and only one error on 31 attempts. CofC jumped to an early lead in the game and led by two at 13-11 before scoring the next eight points to extend its lead to 10 at 21-11. Charleston kept the lead and finished the game at 30-16 on an Elon hitting error.
In the third game, the Phoenix held Charleston to just a .017 hitting percentage to take the victory. After an 11-11 tie, Elon took the lead and extended the advantage to 10 at 26-16 on a kill by Meyers. With Elon up by nine at 27-18, the Cougars scored the next five points to cut the lead to four at 27-23. The Cougars got within two at 28-26 on a kill from Sawin but Elon scored its 29th point on a Cougar service error. The Phoenix could not tally the game point though and CofC knotted the game at 29 behind a Sawin kill, a block from Blum and Sawin and an Elon error. The two teams traded points before Elon posted two points on a kill from Wilson and a block by Downing and Meyers to end the game 35-33.
Uthe tallied five kills on five attempts in the fourth game to lead the Cougars. The game saw 14 ties, the last coming at 23-23, before CofC tallied four straight points behind the serve of Parkerson to take a 27-23 advantage. Elon got back within three at 25-28 but a Phoenix service error gave the Cougars the 29-25 lead. Elon tallied one more point on a kill from Gigon before Charleston closed the game on a kill from Lowes at 30-26.
Elon returns to action on Saturday, Nov. 11 in a 2 p.m. match with The Citadel in Alumni Gym. College of Charleston travels to UNC Greensboro for a 2 p.m. match on Saturday.
Appalachian State 3, Davidson 2
DAVIDSON, N.C. ? Davidson fought back from a two-game deficit to force a decisive game five, but Appalachian used five players in double-figures to outlast the Cats (29-31, 26-30, 30-27, 30-28, 12-15) on Friday night in the final home game of the season at Belk Arena.
Davidson?s record stands at 18-14 overall and 10-7 in the Southern Conference, after the hard-fought loss. The Mountaineers improve to 21-9 overall and 14-13 in the conference. The Wildcats will play their final regular-season game at Georgia Southern, Sun. at 1:30 p.m., before traveling to Appalachian for the Southern Conference Tournament, Nov. 16-19.
The Cats led almost the entire first game, before Appalachian finally went ahead 27-26 on a kill from Diana Thomas, who paced the Mountaineers with 19 kills in just 31 swings. A kill by sophomore Alison Dwyer gave Davidson a game-point try, but Brittany Zahn single-handely delivered the victory for the Mountaineers. After chipping in one of her 18 kills to knot the score at 29, she served up an ace to give Appalachian a game-point try and put away a pass from Lourelle Rau who had a game-high 64 assists, for the 31-29 win.
Appalachian controlled game two from the start, rolling to a 30-25 victory to take a two-game lead before the break. Things looked bleak for Davidson, trailing 4-10 to open the third game, but the Cats hung around and finally went ahead 21-22 on a kill by senior outside hitter Liz Williamson who tallied a match-high 20 kills, behind a six-point serve from senior defensive specialist Lisa Cuellar. With Davidson holding a 27-26 lead in game three, back-to-back errors extended that lead to 29-26 before a third attack error lifted the Cats to a 30-27 win.
Game four was the tightest of all, with neither team gaining more than a two-point advantage until late in the match. With the score knotted at 23, Cuellar posted back-to-back service aces to give Davidson a lead it would carry to a 30-28 victory to force game five.
Having come from two games down to force the decisive fifth game, Davidson dug into a 3-10 hole to begin play, but again behind the stellar serving of Cuellar, used a five-point run to knot the score at 11. Chrissy Finch posted her 11th kill of the match to give the Mountaineers the edge, but followed with an attack error to knot the score again. A Davidson error put Appalachian ahead again 13-12, before a kill from Rau and another Cat error secured the 15-12 victory.
Along with Williamson, junior outsider hitter Katie Pierucci posted double-figures for Davidson, connecting on 15 kills in 35 attempts for a team-high .343 clip, while adding a team-high 17 digs on the defensive end.
Williamson also recorded a double-double with 11 digs to go along with her 20 kills. Cuellar finished the match with seven service aces, nearly all at critical places in the match and just two shy of the single-match record.
For Appalachian, Thomas, Zahn and Finch were joined by Carla Durham (14) and Amy Lewis (11) in double-digits to lead the Mountaineers. Rachel Gates tallied a match-high 21 digs to pace the defense.