Georgia Southern 3, Wofford 2
STATESBORO, Ga. --- The Georgia Southern volleyball team dominated the fifth set to close out a tough 3-2 (27-25, 13-25, 25-17, 19-25, 15-7) victory over Wofford Saturday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
Both teams have completed the regular season. The Eagles head into the Southern Conference Tournament with a 16-17 overall record and 9-9 in the league. The Terriers are now 16-17 and 6-12.
“It was a tournament-type match this evening,” said GSU head coach Chad Callihan. “Wofford was playing to continue on the tournament so they were giving it everything they had this evening, so I think it helped prepare us for what we face this coming week. It was a good effort from both teams. Everybody left it out on the court tonight.”
After alternating wins through the first four sets, Georgia Southern jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fifth and extended the advantage to 14-6 after four straight service points from sophomore Leah Kettelson (Wray, Colo.). Freshman Bethany Sanford (Avondale, Ariz.) finished off the match with her 13th kill.
“We’ve been talking about making choices ? the choice to compete and not give in.,” said Callihan. “We’ve been in a few of those situations this season and hopefully that’s given us confidence in the fifth set. We do a good job of not changing our mindset too much ? we play to win and not to lose.”
Georgia Southern compiled a .350 attack percentage in the final frame, compared to .000 to Wofford.
The Eagles recorded 98 digs as a team, the most since 2006, and had three players total 20 or more, led by freshman Hayli Ketner’s (Spartanburg, S.C.) career-high 23. Junior Cristin Haines (Palos Heights, Ill.) had 22 and Sanford had 21.
“I thought our defense was fantastic and it had to be to keep up with Wofford,” said Callihan. “Wofford is one of the better defensive teams in the league; they dig a ton of balls and their libero is one of the best we have in the SoCon. If you’re going to compete with them you have to match their defensive effort and intensity and I was glad to see we did that tonight. They executed better offensively than we did but our defense allowed us to continue to compete.”
The Terriers’ Stacy Byrd led all players with 14 kills. Brittany Thompson tallied a match-best 26 digs and Shanna Hughes chipped in with 22 digs.
GSU now move on to the SoCon Tournament where they will play Friday in Greensboro, N.C. Pairings and times will be announced by the conference at a later date.
College of Charleston 3, Western Carolina 0
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) dished out a match-high 38 assists and freshman middle blocker Elyse Chubb (Peachtree City, Ga.) drilled a match-high 14 kills with five blocks as the College of Charleston (23-6, 16-1) defeated Western Carolina (6-25, 3-14) 3-0 Saturday afternoon in a Southern Conference volleyball match in Charleston, S.C. The Cougars claimed their 11th straight victory by scores of 25-9, 25-20 and 25-19.
Charleston wasted little time at the start of Game 1, jumping out to leads of 5-1 and 9-5 before back-to-back kills by the Catamounts made it 9-7. From that point, it was all downhill for Western Carolina as the Cougars used a dominating 16-2 run to close out the set with a 25-9 victory.
That run featured nine kills and was capped off by back-to-back kills from Elyse Chubb and sophomore outside hitter Whitney Russell (Decatur, Ga.) as the Cougars went up 1-0 in the match. For the set, Chubb recorded five kills while Cole Dawley dished out 14 assists.
It was a very different story in the second game as the two teams battled out to an early 3-3 tie before CofC mounted a 5-0 run, fueled by five kills, two each from Chubb and Dawley, to pull ahead 8-3. The Catamounts would eventually claw their way back to take a 14-13 lead behind an 11-5 run.
At that point, the two teams would be separated by no more than a point at any one time as they battled through six ties to knot the score at 19-19. A 5-1 run by Charleston then ended the back-and-forth affair with the Cougars coming out on top at 25-20 and extending their lead in the match to 2-0.
Another tightly contested affair, Game 3 featured four early ties as the two squads found themselves deadlocked at 4-4. A 4-0 Charleston run gave them back the lead at 8-4 before Western Carolina rallied to tie the set at 9-9. With the score knotted at 11-11, the Cougars used another 4-0 run to pull back ahead 15-11 and pushed their advantage to 19-13. After withstanding a late rally from the Catamounts, CofC closed out the set, and the match, with a 25-19 victory.
Junior setter Katie Hennessey led the Western Carolina offense with four kills and 12 assists to go along with three blocks while freshman middle blocker Rebecca Stoltz added four kills and four blocks. Defensively, freshman middle blocker Carrie Minogue posted a match-high seven blocks, two solo, while freshman defensive specialist finished with a team-high 11 digs. Senior defensive specialist Liz McLauchlin added seven digs and sophomore outside hitter Kara Lynzee Brookes finished with three blocks.
For the Cougars, Elyse Chubb played a nearly flawless match as she pounded 14 kills, hit a career-high .765, totaled five blocks and committed only one attack error in 17 attempts. Junior outside hitter Emily Sawin (New Lenox, Ill.) drilled ten kills for her fifth straight double-figure kill performance, and seventh in her last eight, while adding six digs and Whitney Russell pounded nine kills and added four blocks,
Cole Dawley was the person setting up all of those kills as she recorded a match-high 38 assists to go along with four kills, five digs and two blocks. As effective as Dawley was on offense, freshman libero Emily Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) captained the defense with a match-best 15 digs while freshman defensive specialist Hayley Harrell (Charleston, S.C.) chipped in with nine digs.
The Cougars close out the regular season tomorrow afternoon when they host Appalachian State at Bishop England High School. First serve is set for 1:00 p.m.
NOTES
With her ten kills against Western Carolina, Sawin is now 10 kills away from moving into sixth place on the Cougars career kills list with 1,086 ... the College of Charleston has now won the last 14 matches against Western Carolina, dating back to October 6, 2001.
UNC Greensboro 3, Samford 0
GREENSBORO, NC ? With lone senior Kaitlyn Nortz playing in her final regular season game, UNC Greensboro stunned conference leader Samford, 25-19, 25-18, 25-23, on Saturday afternoon in Fleming Gymnasium.
With the win, the Spartans (22-9, 14-4 SoCon) clinched second place in the North Division. Having already clinched first place in the North Division, the Bulldogs (27-4, 16-2 SoCon) lost for just the second time in the past 23 matches.
The Spartans hit .214 and accumulated 49 blocks for the match. The Bulldogs hit just .140 for the afternoon and only had 10 blocks.
UNCG Greensboro got started the match with a quick 3-0 run before the two teams traded points in the opening stanza. The Spartans extended their lead to 15-11, before the Bulldogs made it 20-18 late in the set. UNCG head coach Shawn Garus called a timeout to gather his players and they responded by going on a 5-1 run to win the first set 25-19.
The Spartans carried the momentum into the second set as they jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead. UNCG continued to tally points as they hit .292 for the set and registered 17 blocks in the set. The Spartans closed out the set by running off four of the final five points in the set to win the set 25-18 and take a 2-0 set lead.
After the 10 minute break, Samford came out of the locker room with a newfound confidence. The Bulldogs had a 6-3 lead early in the third set and led 19-15 as it looked as if the Bulldogs would win set until the Spartans rallied. UNCG rallied to pull within 19-18 and traded a few points before winning the final four points of the set to win the set 25-23 and the match 3-0.
UNCG will have five days off before returning to the friendly confines of Fleming Gymnasium for the 2008 Southern Conference Volleyball Championship. The Spartans will face the No. 3 seed from the South Division, Georgia Southern, at 7 p.m. in the first round.
AGATE
UNCG def. Samford 25-19, 25-18, 25-23
UNCG (22-9, 14-4 SoCon) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Kayren Finney 7-0-5; Branagan Fuller 6-0-1; Kaitlyn Nortz 5-1-9; Alissa Beaudway 4-0-5; Caley Redden 2-0-1; Billi Baker 2-0-8; Lisa Fawell 1-1-0; Totals 27-5-29. (Assists) - Kimiko Naito 12; Lisa Fawell 11. (Dig leaders) - Catherine Hanners 11; Lisa Fawell 5.
Samford (27-4, 16-2 SoCon) (Kills-aces-blocks) ? Sara Sears 10-1-0; Kirstein Sosnowski 9-0-0; Samantha Bland 8-1-2; Sheriden Stangohr 6-0-2; Rachel Gadberry 5-0-0; Sarah Gardner 2-1-0; Totals 40-4-4. (Assists) ? Hillary Fountain 35. (Dig leaders) ? Courtney Gay 11; Samantha Bland 5; Sara Sears 4.
Appalachian State 3, The Citadel 0
Charleston, S.C. ? Rachel Sanders registered 11 kills and Ashley Winter led the defensive effort with 14 digs but The Citadel was unable to sweep the season series with Appalachian State as the Mountaineers won, 3-0, on Senior Night in McAlister Field House Saturday. Set scores were 25-23, 25-13 and 28-26.
The Citadel (8-23, 1-16 Southern) had three girls with double-digit digs in the match as Tatum Jestila and Emily Hill each recorded 11 digs. Sanders 11 kills led the Bulldogs offensively, as did her .194 hitting percentage.
Appalachian State (7-24, 3-14 SoCon) was led by Maya Jechorek’s 14 kills and by Caroline Sedon’s .333 hitting percentage. Cassie Engelgau’s 14 digs led the Mountaineer defensive effort.
Saturday night’s match was dubbed “Senior Night” as The Citadel honored the team’s three seniors ? Emily Hill, Rachel Sanders and Ashley Winter ? prior to the match.
“What an emotional game,” said head coach Carolyn Geiger. “We honored our seniors and all they have done for our program tonight. Appalachian played all out, which is something we expected after beating them on their home turf. I feel at times they opened the door for us to win but unfortunately we made some critical mistakes.”
“We switched things up in the third set and I thought we responded well to keep the score tight. All in all, we are playing more competitively. If we can limit our mistakes in serve receive, we can turn these tough, well fought matches into wins.”
The Appalachian State victory prevented a Bulldog sweep of the Mountaineers this season in what would have been a first for The Citadel program. The Bulldogs’ 3-1 win over Appalachian State in Boone on Oct. 24 was the program’s first victory over ASU.
Appalachian edged out a closely contested first set by a 25-23 margin. Sanders led all hitters with five kills in the set while Jechorek and Becca Norris each recorded four kills in the set for ASU.
The set recorded 15 tie scores and six lead changes, including three ties and two lead changes in the final six points. Back-to-back attack errors by Jessica Maas and Sanders allowed Appalachian to get by with the 25-23 victory.
The Mountaineers dominated the second set, hitting .556 and recording 17 kills in the 25-13 victory. Blaine McAllister recorded three of the Bulldogs’ nine kills in the set as The Citadel hit .172 in the second frame.
Nine tie scores and four lead changes highlighted a close final set that required extra points to complete. Facing match point at 25-24, Tatum Jestila put down a kill to tie the set at 25-25. Four of the set’s nine tie scores came in the last eight points. Jechorek closed out the set for the Mountaineers with a kills to give ASU the 27-26 lead and a service ace on match point to clinch the victory for Appalachian. Sanders led The Citadel with four kills while Hill added nine assists and nine digs in the set.
The Citadel returns to action in McAlister Field House for the final match of the regular season , hosting Western Carolina at 2 p.m. For complete coverage of Bulldog Volleyball, visit the official home of The Citadel Athletics at CitadelSports.com.
Elon 3, Chattanooga 0
ELON, N.C. ? Sarah Schermerhorn posted 11 kills and just two errors on 21 attempts for a .429 hitting percentage to lead the Phoenix to a 3-0 win over Chattanooga on Senior Day in Alumni Gym. Elon took the first game 25-22 before earning a 25-23 win in the second set and a 25-19 victory to close the match.
In the first set, the teams knotted the score at four before Chattanooga scored the next three points to go ahead 7-4. Elon then used a nine-point run to go ahead 13-7 on a kill by Schermerhorn. Elon extended the lead to seven at 16-9 before Chattanooga outscored Elon 7-4 to cut the lead to four at 20-16. But Elon scored four of the next five points to go up 24-17. Chattanooga posted the next four point, but Elon was able to close the game 25-21 on a Schermerhorn kill.
After a 3-3 tie to start the second set, Elon outscored the Lady Mocs 7-1 to take a 10-4 lead on a kill by Caroline Lemke. Elon held onto a six-point lead at 15-9 before Chattanooga used a 5-1 run to cut the lead to two at 16-14. Elon pushed the lead back to five at 22-17 but UTC scored the next four points to cut the lead to one at 22-21 on a kill from Jessica Scott. But Elon was able to close the set, 25-23.
Set three started with a 4-4 tie before Elon scored the next five points behind the offense of Schermerhorn, Lemke and Traci Stewart to go ahead 9-4. But Chattanooga would respond with the next four points to cut the deficit to one at 9-8. After seven tie scores, Elon came out of a 17-17 tie with back-to-back blocks to go ahead 19-17. Elon would hold onto the advantage and close the game at 25-19 on consecutive kills from Schermerhorn. The Phoenix posted a .417 hitting percentage in the third set.
For the Phoenix, Mandy Wilson and Lauren Copenhagen each added eight kills while Stewart posted seven kills. Megan McMahon registered 26 assists while Blakewood led the defense with 16 digs.
For the Lady Mocs, Courtney Barnes and Aurore Kullak each posted eight kills while Lara Newberry led the defense with 16 digs. Michaela Huff took care of the setting responsibilities, posting 20 assists.
Both teams return to action on Friday, Nov. 21 at the Southern Conference Tournament in Greensboro, N.C.