College of Charleston 3, The Citadel 0
CHARLESTON, S.C. - In front of a John Kresse Arena record crowd of 1,547 raucous fans junior outside hitter Emily Sawin (New Lenox, Ill.) drilled a match-high 14 kills and hit .478 while freshman middle blocker Elyse Chubb (Peachtree City, Ga.) totaled eight kills and six blocks as the College of Charleston (20-6, 13-1) handed The Citadel (8-20, 1-13) a 3-0 defeat Wednesday evening in a Southern Conference match. The Cougars took the final match in the Arena by scores of 25-14, 25-15 and a season-best mark, 25-9.
The College of Charleston, fresh off of clinching the 2008 Southern Conference South Division Title, came out strong early and jumped out to a 9-4 lead behind five kills and four Bulldog errors. With the score at 16-10, the Cougars used an 8-2 run to force set point at 24-12 before closing out Game 1 with a 25-14 victory to go up 1-0 in the match.
It was a different story at the start of Game 2 as the two teams battled through four ties to reach 4-4 before a 3-0 CofC run made it 7-4. Despite the mini-run, The Citadel would keep the set close and narrowed the margin to 9-7 and 12-10 before an 11-3 Cougar charge pushed the lead to a commanding 23-13 advantage.
Following consecutive scores by the Bulldogs to make it 23-15, Emily Sawin and sophomore right side hitter Ginny Phillips (Raleigh, N.C.) put the set away with back-to-back kills, 25-15, and gave Charleston a two-game advantage. In the set, Sawin delivered eight kills and registered a .636 hitting percentage while sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) dished out 14 assists.
Sophomore middle blocker Jessica Maas opened the third set with a kill that put The Citadel up 1-0 and then it was all downhill for the Bulldogs as Charleston responded with a dominant 19-3 run that featured 11 kills, four by Elyse Chubb, to go up 19-4. Four more kills and a pair of forced errors closed out the set, and John Kresse Arena, at 25-9.
The Game 3 score marks the first time this season that the Cougars have held an opponent to single digits in a non-deciding match.
Maas led The Citadel with seven kills and three blocks while senior setter Emily Hill finished with 11 assists and a team-high tying four digs. Sophomore middle blocker Amanda Beal added six kills while senior outside hitter Rachel Sanders totaled five kills four digs and two blocks. As a team, the Bulldogs were held to a .000 hitting percentage.
For Charleston, Sawin led all hitters with 14 kills and a .478 hitting percentage while Elyse Chubb finished with eight kills, six blocks and a .429 hitting percentage. Whitney Russell hit at a .438 clip and added nine kills. Cole Dawley dished out a match-high 36 assists to go along with nine digs, three blocks and four kills.
Defensively, freshman libero Emily Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) turned up a match-high 11 digs while Ginny Phillips and junior middle blocker Jennifer Darty (Orlando, Fla.) each added four blocks on the night.
As a team, the Cougars far surpassed their season-high in hitting percentage with a mark of .420, eclipsing the .364 they set against The Citadel on September 5 of this year, and tied their three-set high with 46 kills. Charleston also reached that mark on September 20 against Gardner-Webb and on October 19 vs. Chattanooga. Additionally, the Cougars committed a season low 12 errors.
Charleston has now won its last eight matches, and 15 of its last 16, to improve to 13-1 in the Southern Conference.
The Cougars continue their Southern Conference schedule when they travel to Davidson for a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday, November 7 before wrapping up the weekend on Sunday, November 9 with a 2:00 p.m. match at Georgia Southern.
Record-Setting
On the final night of play in John Kresse Arena, a facility record 1,547 fans watched the Cougars defeat The Citadel 3-0. It surpassed the mark of 1,228 fans in attendance on November 11, 2005 to witness a 3-0 win over Georgia Southern that moved the Cougars to 27-1 on their way to a 32-2 season. This evening’s crowd is the second largest ever to see a College of Charleston volleyball match.
On November 29, 2007, 1,759 fans were in attendance for the NCAA Tournament First Round match-up with the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Fla.
NOTES
Charleston will play its final two home matches against Western Carolina on November 15 at the Porter-Gaud School and against Appalachian State on November 16 at Bishop England High School ... the Cougars will move into the brand new, state-of-the-art Carolina First Arena in 2009 ... Cole Dawley has now recorded 30 or more assists in 12 of her last 14 matches.
ALL-TIME JOHN KRESSE ARENA VOLLEYBALL ATTENDANCE RECORDS
1. 1,547 ? November 5, 2008 vs. The Citadel
2. 1,228 ? November 11, 2005 vs. Georgia Southern
3. 846 ? October 29, 2004 vs. Georgia Southern
ALL-TIME COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON VOLLEYBALL ATTENDANCE RECORDS
1. 1,759 ? November 29, 2007 at Florida %
2. 1,547 ? November 5, 2008 vs. The Citadel
3. 1,228 ? November 11, 2005 vs. Georgia Southern
4. 1,127 ? October 29, 2003 at Georgia Southern
5. 1,078 ? September 8, 2006 vs. Wichita State @
6. 861 ? September 15, 2007 at Iowa
7. 846 ? October 29, 2004 vs. Georgia Southern
8. 804 ? November 11, 1998 at Clemson
9. 802 ? September 7, 2007 at Notre Dame
% NCAA Tournament
@ GSK-Carolina Classic, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Appalachian State 3, Western Carolina 1
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University volleyball pounded more than twice as many kills as Western Carolina and came back from a two-point loss in the first set on Wednesday night to defeat the Catamounts, 24-26, 25-16, 25-15 and 25-21.
The first set began very close as the teams found a rhythm in a rare midweek matchup and stayed very close all the way through. Neither team led by more than three points despite the statistics favored Appalachian most of the way through. The Mountaineers (6-22, 2-12 SoCon) pounded 19 kills with two service aces in the set while WCU was more efficient with 10 kills and just three errors. The Catamounts (6-22, 3-11) swatted five blocks in the set to take the 26-24 win after taking each of the final three points in the set.
Maja Jechorek started the match strong with six of her match-high 15 kills in the first set. The junior hit .125 and added five digs for the night.
Appalachian responded to the loss with a commanding 7-1 run to open the second set. From there, ASU extended the lead to as many as 10 points and never let the Lady Cats back within five points en route to a 25-16 win.
Coming back from the intermission, the Apps stayed on a roll, with a 25-15 win in the third set. Momentum temporarily shifted back to the visitors as Western's Katie Hennessey served her team to a 4-0 lead early on. ASU went on a 4-0 run of its own and never looked back in the set. Carla Durham and Maggie Seeds were a big part of the turnaround. Hennessey led WCU with six kills, 16 assists and 18 digs in the match.
Durham had three of her 11 kills in the third set while Seeds hit .800 with four kills in the set and with on the night. Durham led the team with five of Appalachian's eight kills on the night.
With the team's first home conference win in its sights in the third set, the Mountaneers tightened up the defense and allowed Western Carolina just five kills in the final set. The Apps had 17 of their 56 kills in the fourth stanza, led by four each from Charissa Clearman and Heather Kale.
Clearman closed out the night with a team-high 15 kills and 28 assists while Kale had a career-high seven aces to go with 14 digs and a kill. Her seven aces were the second-most by any player in Southern Conference league play this season, behind only UNC Greensboro's Catherine Hanners, whose 10 also came against WCU.
Appalachian never trailed by more than two points and pulled away for the 25-21 win.
The team's 60 kills are the most in a four-set match for ASU this season and is just the second four-set win of the year.
The Mountaineers host Chattanooga on Saturday at 7 p.m. The team will honor seniors Clearman and Durham shortly before the match.
Furman 3, Wofford 0
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? The Paladin volleyball team earned its second win of the season over Wofford with a 3-0 victory on Wednesday.
After three ties early in the first set, Furman pulled away to an easy
25-17 victory, led by middle blockers Alexis Shaffer and Nicole Palazzo, who each recorded four kills in the first set. Setter Kelsey Salava ran an efficient offense, notching 15 assists for the victory.
Wofford recovered in the second set, going on an 8-3 run midway through the set to tie the score at 19. Although the Terriers forced several tie scores near the end of the set, they were unable to take the lead and Furman took the set 25-23.
The Paladins had no problem defeating the Terriers in the third and final set, collecting 12 kills and 29 digs as a team en route to a 25-11 win.
The Terriers were led by junior outside hitter Shanna Hughes, who recorded nine kills. Libero Brittany Thompson led all players with 27 digs, while Sarah Palmer and Hughes also contributed double-digit digs, with 15 and 10, respectively.
Senior middle blocker Palazzo led the Paladins with 11 kills and also added four total blocks, while fellow middle blocker, freshman Alexis Shaffer contributed five total blocks and eight kills. Senior Ali West added nine kills and led the floor defense with 20 digs, while libero Carolyn Nicoletti contributed 19 defensive saves. Setter Kelsey Salava averaged more than 10 assists per set, with 32 total assists on the night.
With the win, Furman improves to 15-12 overall and 8-6 in the Southern Conference, while Wofford falls to 15-14 on the season and 5-9 in league play. The Paladins will host UNC Greensboro on Saturday night in a 7:00 p.m. matchup in Alley Gymnasium.
UNC Greensboro 3, Elon 1
GREENSBORO, NC ? Branagan Fuller posted a match-high 17 kills to go with 12 digs, Kaitlyn Nortz chipped in 13 kills and UNC Greensboro downed Elon in Southern Conference volleyball action, 3-1 on Wednesday.
The Spartans (18-9, 10-4 SoCon) hit .252 to earn the 25-17, 27-29, 25-17, 25-16 win. The Phoenix (17-13, 6-8) hit just .087 for the match.
UNCG jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the first set, powered by three kills from Fuller and two from Alissa Beaudway. Elon countered with a 7-0 run and later made it 17-15, but the Spartans roared back with an 8-2 run to take the set.
Set two was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team leading by more than four. A pair of Fuller kills negated two of Elon’s four set points, but the Phoenix fought off UNCG’s lone set point with kills from Sarah Schermerhorn and Lauren Copenhagen and won the set on a Spartan attack error.
UNCG rebounded to take the third set, jumping out to a 10-3 lead courtesy of three Fuller kills. The Spartans matched their largest lead of the set at 21-13, but Elon put together four straight points to close the gap. A Kayren Finney kill, an Elon attack error and Caley Redden service ace gave UNCG set point, and a Fuller kill after a lengthy rally fittingly salted away a set in which the Spartans hit .424.
The Spartans finished the job in set four, never trailing in the set. After Elon closed to within 9-8 on a Copenhagen service ace, UNCG took advantage of a Billi Baker kill, two Elon attack errors and a service error to pump the lead up to 13-8. From there, the Spartans gradually extended their lead en route to wrapping up the set and the match.
Kimiko Naito and Lisa Fawell shared match-high honors with 22 assists each for UNCG, while Emily Regan paced the Phoenix with 21. Catherine Hanners scooped a match-high 23 digs for the Spartans, while Traci Stewart led Elon with 11. Copenhagen and Caroline Lemke had eight kills each to lead the Phoenix.
UNCG will face Furman at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Greenville, S.C., to kick off its last road trip of the season. The Spartans will take on Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C., on Sunday at 2 p.m.