Wofford 3, Furman 2

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Amanda Liguori recorded 21 kills as the Wofford volleyball team slipped past Furman, 3-2 (21-25, 28-26, 25-15, 22-25, 18-16), Friday at Alley Gymnasium in Greenville, S.C.

The Terriers held an early 10-8 advantage in the opening set, but the Paladins notched back-to-back points to tie the set at 10-all.  The Terriers again took a two-point lead at 15-13, only to have the Paladins retie the set at 15.  Following another tie at 16-apiece, Furman took its first lead of the set, 18-16, following a Paladin kill by senior Christina Curry and a Terrier attack error.  The Paladins then mounted a 5-2 run to take a 23-18 lead and went on to claim the first set, 25-21.

In set two, Wofford took a 5-2 lead and eventually held a 9-7 margin before Furman pulled even at nine.  The Paladins broke open a 10-all tie after putting together a 4-1 run to take a 14-11 lead, then pushed the lead out to five points at 17-12, but Wofford fought back and trimmed the lead to 17-14.  Furman maintained a three to four point lead, until Wofford rallied off four-straight points to tie the set at 24.  Following a controversial point that tied the set at 25, the Paladins took a 26-25 lead off a kill from junior Christina Dorismond.  Facing their second set point and a 2-0 deficit in the match, the Terriers scored the next three points on a Paladin service error, a Reagan Styles ace, and a Liguori kill to win the second set 28-26 and even the set at 1-1 at the break.

The teams battled through five ties to open the third set before the Terriers put together three-consecutive kills to take a 7-5 lead.  Wofford held the small lead until Furman tied the set at 13 on a kill fromsenior  Chandler Ambrester, but the Terriers reclaimed a two point lead at 15-13 following a Paladin ball handling error and a Woodlee.  After another kill by Ambrester cut the margin back to one point, 15-14, Wofford put together a 10-1 run to close out the set, 25-15, and take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Paladins opened set four with a 13-8 advantage and held the five-point lead until the Terriers pulled within one at 15-14.  Furman answered by pushing the lead out to four points, 18-14, but Wofford again responded with a 5-0 run to take a 19-18 lead.  Neither team could pull away as they traded the next seven points.  Furman broke a tie at 22, winning the final three points on a kill from Dorismond, a block by Dorismond and freshman Jo Wilks, and a Terrier attack error to earn the 25-22 set win and force a decisive fifth set.

Wofford took an early 5-1 lead in the fifth set, but Furman pulled within two points at 5-3 following consecutive Terrier hitting errors.  Wofford held the two-point lead until a kill from Rachel Woodlee pushed the lead to three at 10-7.  The lead wavered between two and three points, before the Paladins put together a 4-0 run to reclaim the lead, 13-12.  The two teams traded points as Furman fought off match point at 15-14 with a kill by Ambrester.  A kill from Curry held off another set point at 16-15, leveling the set at 16 and force a Terrier timeout.  Coming out of the timeout Wofford took a 17-16 off a Paladin error and claimed the set, 18-16, and the match on another Paladin error.

 

Wofford (14-10, 4-7 SoCon) held a slight advantage in hitting percentage with a .278 clip, while Furman hit .223.  Wofford had one more kill than Furman, 70-69, but the Paladins held a small edge at the net with eight team blocks compared to seven and a half for Wofford.

Ambrester recorded a double-double for the Paladins, notching a team-high 23 kills and a career-high 20 digs, while Dorismond added 16 kills and four blocks.  Senior Caroline Adams had 13 kills in the match-up.  Sophomore Katie Harrell claimed a career-high 20 digs, while junior Elle Ross collected 19 digs for the Paladins.  Junior Amanda Komisarow claimed 12 digs.  Wilks tallied a career-high 62 assists, plus added eight digs and three blocks for Furman.

Georgia Southern 3, College of Charleston 1

CHARLESTON, S.C. – After falling in the first set, the Georgia Southern Eagles rallied with three strong sets to defeat the College of Charleston in SoCon volleyball action at TD Arena on Friday night, 3-1 (16-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-20).

The win puts the Eagles (19-6, 10-1) squarely in first place in the SoCon South Division, while College of Charleston (18-7, 9-2) falls one game back into second place.

GSU outdug the Cougars 64-55 and held a 12-5 edge in blocks on the match as the Eagle defense stifled Charleston’s league-leading attack. The Cougars hit just .117 on the match with 26 errors, while Georgia Southern hit .254.

CofC’s Darcy Dorton was the only Cougar to reach double digits in kills as she tallied her 12th double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs. Sloane White and Melissa Morello each made eight kills, but combined to hit just .105. Emily Shelton led CofC with 12 digs.

The Eagles used a match-high 17 kills from Moriah Bellissimo and 13 kills from Meredith Paskert to hold leads throughout nearly all of the second, third and fourth sets. Kate Van Dyke recorded 47 assists and Alexandra Beecher made 23 digs for the Eagles.

College of Charleston jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the first set after consecutive GSU hitting errors. A kill from Dorton put the Cougars up 15-6, but the Eagles went on a 6-1 run to establish their first momentum of the match and cut the margin to 16-12. CofC responded with a 7-2 run of its own to take a 23-14 lead after a Shelton ace and a kill from Emily Neideffer. The Cougars won the set on a kill from Dorton, 25-16. White had six kills and no errors in the first frame, as CofC outhit Georgia Southern, .375-.156.

Georgia Southern scored the first two points of the second set and the Cougars could not catch up, despite a 6-0 run that cut a 13-6 lead to just 13-12 after a Paskert attack error. The Eagles responded to win six of the next seven points and built an insurmountable 19-13 lead. A kill from Jamie DeRatt ended the set for GSU, 25-17.

In the third set, CofC battled early by taking advantage of a number of GSU errors. An ace from Morello made the score 9-8 but a number of GSU blocks sparked a run to put the Eagles up 14-9. Kills from Crysten Curry and Kym Coley gave the Eagles a 19-11 lead, as GSU went on to win the third set, 25-15.

With their backs against the wall, College of Charleston battled for every point in the fourth set, cutting the GSU lead to 11-10 after two consecutive kills from Morello. The teams continued to side out until a 5-0 Eagle run stretched a 14-13 game to 19-13 and reestablished the Georgia Southern momentum. College of Charleston fought back with kills from Dorton and Catey Warren and two Eagle errors to make it 19-17 and force a Georgia Southern timeout. However, the Eagles came out the stoppage with two kills and eventually put the final set away, 25-20.

Elon 3, Appalachian State 0

ELON, N.C. – After falling to Appalachian State earlier this season, the Elon volleyball team came out strong tonight, Oct. 26, to sweep the Mountaineers, 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-23), in Alumni Gym during its Live Pink match. This marked sixth straight year the Phoenix (13-13, 6-5 SoCon) has defeated ASU (6-19, 2-9 SoCon) at home. Elon is currently on a three-match winning streak and has won four of its last five.

Sophomore Chanelle Smith recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 11 kills off 23 attempts with only one error to hit .435 and 11 digs. Freshman Megan Gravley led the Phoenix with 13 kills, while freshman Ana Nicksic finished with 38 assists (12.6 per set) to help Elon hit. 258.

On defense, sophomore Kris Harris had five blocks as Nicksic and senior Celia Rose Eddy each tallied four. The Phoenix out blocked the Mountaineers, 9-4.

Down by two in the first set, 7-5, Elon scored five straight with kills and two blocks by Harris and Nicksic to take the lead by three, 10-7. The Mountaineers pulled back within one, 16-15, before the Phoenix went on a 3-1 run to force ASU to call its second timeout of the set. Up by three, 22-19, the maroon and gold scored the final three points of the set off an ace by Harris, a kill by Eddy and a block by Nicksic and Eddy to take a 25-19 win.

With the second set tied at six-all, Elon used a 9-1 run that included three kills by C. Smith, one by Danielle Smith, a block by Harris and an ace by Ali Deatsch to take a 15-7 lead. The Mountaineers picked away at the maroon and gold lead and were able to tie the set again at 21. ASU took the advantage and reached set point first, 24-22. A kill by D. Smith, a block by Nicksic and Harris and a kill by C. Smith helped the Phoenix to three unanswered to reach the second set point of the match, 25-24. The teams traded points and found the set knotted again at 26-all. Back-to-back kills by Gravley gave Elon the last two points and the victory, 28-26.

Elon opened the third set with a four-point advantage, 7-3, with the help of two straight kills by D. Smith. ASU was able to tie the set at 14-all before a 4-2 run put the Phoenix back up, 19-16. The Mountaineers would not go easily and evened the set at 20 to force Elon to call its first timeout of the set. With the score at 23-all, kills by C. Smith and Harris sealed a 25-23 win for the Phoenix and the match sweep.

Elon will play its final home match of the season tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 27, against Western Carolina at 7 p.m. The Phoenix will honor its five seniors – Deatsch, Eddy, Carly Ledbetter, Allison Johnson and Alli Nogi prior to the match.

UNCG 3, Western Carolina 1

Freshman Nicole Ford scores nine kills and six blocks in the loss Despite a set three 25-23 win over UNCG Friday evening, the Spartans were too much for the Catamounts as UNCG redeemed itself from the sweep suffered in Cullowhee, defeating WCU 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 23-25, 25-14) in Greensboro.  UNCG – who sits tied for second with Elon in the SoCon North – improve to 12-11, 6-5 SoCon while the Catamounts drop to 8-18, 4-7 SoCon with the loss.

UNCG hit at a .291 clip while holding the Catamounts to just a .154 hitting percentage while having three with double-digit kills. Karrian Chambers led the way for the Spartans, knocking down 21 kills and picking up 14 digs.

Freshman Nicole Ford had her best all-around match of her young career as she picked up nine kills, an ace, three digs and six blocks. Sophomore Caitlin Piechota led WCU offensively, picking up her fourth consecutive double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Classmate Jordan Timmermann was one kill shy of her seventh double-double of the season with nine kills and 10 digs. Addy George hit at a consistent .300 pct. from her spot in the middle, tallying nine kills.

As has been the case in most of WCU’s losses this season, the Catamounts got behind 2-0 going into the break. The Catamounts came out with more enthusiasm in the third set, a set in which there were 10 tie scores and seven different lead changes. Nicole Ford picked up three of her nine kills in the third set. The Catamounts side out percentage was the best of the night with WCU siding out at a 60% rate. It was the only set that the Catamounts were over 47% in the 25-23 win to get Western on the board.

The Catamounts could not maintain their momentum in the fourth as UNCG took the set by a score of 25-14.

Setter Tina Nazario pitched a balanced game for the Catamounts as the freshman dished out 39 assists as five of her teammates had eight kills or better. She also picked up nine digs and three blocks.

Junior Morgan Cochran continued her ascent in the WCU record books as the co-captain picked up 23 digs to give her 1,374 career digs to move her into fourth all-time.