College of Charleston 3, Winthrop 0
ROCK HILL, S.C. - Sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) notched a match-high 31 assists and added 11 digs as the College of Charleston (27-7, 17-1) defeated Winthrop (11-18, 7-9) 3-0 Wednesday afternoon in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Following a brief 3-1 Winthrop lead to begin Game 1, Charleston responded with a 3-1 run of their own to tie the set at 4-4. That would set the tone for the frame as the two teams then battled through nine ties and five lead changes before deadlocking at 17-17. A kill by junior outside hitter Emily Sawin (New Lenox, Ill.) followed by an Eagle error then gave the Cougars a 19-17 advantage.
They soon stretched that to 21-18 with a pair kills by Sawin and freshman middle blocker Sarah Havel (Carmel, Ind.) before a 5-2 run by Winthrop tied the game at 23-23. Back-to-back points then ended any hope of an Eagle comeback as Charleston took the set 25-23 and went up 1-0 in the match.
Having survived a tightly contest affair in Game 1, the Cougars took no chances at the start of the second set as they powered out to leads of 6-2 and 12-4 behind six kills, including two from sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.). Charleston continued to attack as they peppered the Eagle defense with three more kills and a service ace to extend the lead to 17-9.
A 3-0 run fueled by three Cougar errors narrowed the gap to 17-11, but that would be as close as Winthrop would get as three straight kills and a service ace pushed the lead back to a commanding 21-11 advantage. From there, Charleston would go on to close out the set at 25-17 and increase their match lead to 2-0.
Facing the end of their season, the Eagles opened Game 3 by scoring five of the first six points and notched an early 7-3 lead fueled by three kills from junior right side hitter Kelley Taylor. It would not last as back-to-back kills by Havel sparked a 16-5 run that not only pulled Charleston even at 11-11 but put them ahead 19-12. The Cougars would end the set with a greater run of 22-8 as they notched a 25-15 victory for their 18th 3-0 decision on the season.
Senior middle hitter Shannon Sitzmann led Winthrop with a match-high 15 kills and added eight digs while sophomore setter Kelsey Hall and freshman setter Chrissie Albers split the setting duties with 18 and 17 assists, respectively. Freshman libero Janice Rivera led the Eagles defense with a match-high tying 11 digs and freshman middle hitter Becca Toor finished with four blocks.
Cole Dawley led the Cougars with 31 assists and 11 digs for her team-leading 15th double-double and added six kills and a .750 hitting percentage while sophomore outside hitter Whitney Russell (Decatur, Ga.) and freshman middle blocker Sarah Havel (Carmel, Ind.) each added eight kills. Freshman middle blocker Elyse Chubb (Peachtree City, Ga.) finished with six kills and a total of four blocks. Three of those were solo blocks as she tied both her career-high and Charleston’s season-high and maintained her average of 1.33 per set.
Defensively, Dawley and freshman libero Emily Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) each posted a match-high tying 11 digs while Emily Sawin chipped in with eight digs to go along with her seven kills.
The Cougars now must await word on whether their 27-7 overall record will be good enough to earn an at-large bid to the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Pairings for the field of 64 will be announced live on ESPNU at 10:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 30.