Georgia Southern 3, Appalachian State 0STATESBORO, Ga. – Kym Coley recorded 10 kills, and Georgia Southern held Appalachian State to an .090 hitting percentage for the match to earn a 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-16) Southern Conference volleyball victory over the Mountaineers Saturday afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse.
The win gives the Eagles (25-5, 13-3 SoCon) their second consecutive SoCon regular-season title and the top seed in next weekend’s tournament, hosted by Furman in Greenville, S.C.
Jamie DeRatt recorded eight kills and 16 digs, while Katie Bange posted eight kills. Nicole Jeschelnik, playing in her final home game on Senior Day, contributed seven kills, six digs, three blocks and four service aces. Alexandra Beecher finished with a match-high 21 digs, and Katalin Minnerly had 34 assists.
Lauren Gray led Appalachian State (17-12, 9-7) with 11 kills, and Emily Corrigan posted eight kills and nine digs.
The Eagles were stout defensively and posted six blocks and 59 digs as a team. Georgia Southern held the Mountaineers to .093 hitting in the first set and .070 in the third frame.
Leading 17-16, Georgia Southern used a 5-2 run to distance itself in the first set as Coley tallied two kills during the spurt. The Mountaineers cut the margin to 22-19, but the Eagles pushed for points on consecutive kills by DeRatt en route to winning the set 25-20.
A 10-2 run, ignited by three Crysten Curry kills, opened a 17-7 lead for the Eagles in the second set, and Georgia Southern went on to take the frame 25-17. The Eagles jumped out to a 12-4 cushion in the third set and led by as many as 10 points en route to a 25-16 win.
Eagle seniors Lauren LaRocque and Enjoli Johnson also played in their final home match at Georgia Southern. LaRocque finished with four digs and an assist, while Johnson recorded a kill.
Furman 3, Chattanooga 2Chattanooga, Tenn. – Furman volleyball rallied from a two sets to one deficit to defeat the Chattanooga Mocs, 3-2 (25-27, 25-16, 22-25, 26-24, 15-9), on Saturday, in the final match of the regular season. With the win, the Paladins have locked up the #2 seen in next weekend’s SoCon Tournament and move to 16-11 (12-4 SoCon), while the Mocs fall to 4-27 (3-13 SoCon).
Annie Bierman led the Paladins with 21 kills, a .346 hitting percentage and 19 digs for her fifth double-double of the year and second of the weekend. Ashton Gregory added 14 kills and three blocks, Christina Dorismond put down 12 kills and added a team-high four blocks, and Casey Wells added 11 kills. Elle Ross had a team-high 28 digs, while Jo Wilks added 19 digs and 59 assists.
The teams traded runs in set one before, with the score tied at 18, Chattanooga took a two-point lead at 20-18 to force a Furman timeout. The Paladins cut the lead to one at 20-19, but the Mocs stretched their lead to three at 23-20, forcing another Furman timeout. The Paladins then went on a 3-1 run to cut the Moc lead to one at 24-23, forcing a Chattanooga timeout. The Paladins then tied the set at 24 and again at 25, but the Mocs used a kill and a service ace to win set one, 27-25, and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
It was the Paladins that opened up an early 11-3 lead in set two. The Mocs cut the Furman lead to five at 11-6, but the Paladins continued to add to their lead, forcing a Chattanooga timeout at 18-12. Furman closed out the set on a 7-4 run to take set two, 25-16, and tie the match at 1.
The Mocs opened up a 16-11 lead in set three, forcing Furman to take a timeout. The teams traded points until Chattanooga took a 23-19 lead, forcing the Paladins to call another timeout. Furman cut the lead to two at 23-21 and again at 24-22, but Chattanooga got a kill to end the set at 25-22 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Mocs again opened up a big lead in set four, this time at 20-13. Out of a Furman timeout, the Paladins rattled off four straight points to cut the Moc lead to 20-17 and force a Chattanooga timeout. Furman continued to rally, tying the set at 23. Chattanooga took a 24-23 lead, but Furman finished out the set on a 3-0 rally to win set four, 26-24, and force the match to a fifth set.
It was all Furman in set five, as the Paladins opened up a huge 11-3 lead in a set that only goes to 15. Chattanooga out-scored the Paladins 6-4 over the final points of the set, but Furman was able to win set five, 15-9, and take the match, 3-2.
Western Carolina 3, The Citadel 0
Charleston, S.C. – Senior libero Morgan Cochran moved within six digs of tying and seven digs of breaking the all-time Western Carolina volleyball dig record with 20 digs in the Catamounts regular season finale- a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-23) sweep of The Citadel – Saturday afternoon in McAlister Fieldhouse.
Cochran’s 20 digs in the match gives her 2,146 career digs as she continues to close in on Liz Rondone’s mark of 2,152 digs.
Cochran, who entered the weekend averaging 6.13 digs per set and leading the NCAA, is already WCU’s all-time digs per set record holder with a mark of 5.12.
Jordan Timmerman led the Catamount offense with 12 kills, while Addy George followed with eight kills. Nicole Ford and Caitlin Piechota each chipped in seven kills. Cristina Nazario handed out 39 assists. Trailing Cochran’s effort on the defensive end was Piechota, who had 17 digs, and Paige McConlogue, who had 10 digs. Addy George had six total blocks, two solo and four block assists.
WCU cruised through the first two sets with a 25-18 set one win and a 25-15 set two, but The Citadel made the third set a tightly contest set.
Trailing 16-12, the Bulldogs mounted a 6-2 run to pull even at 18, but the Catamounts answered with three straight points – two on The Citadel errors and one on a kill from Leah Butler – to take 21-16 lead. However, The Citadel fought back and again evened the score at 22 as they took advantage of two WCU miscues. The Catamounts edged out the 25-23 after WCU broke the 22-22 tie with three of the final four points.
The Catamounts had 13 more kills than The Bulldogs, 45-32, and held an advantage at the net with nine team blocks compared to six team blocks for The Citadel.
Western Carolina ends the season at 18-12 overall and 8-8 in the Southern Conference. The .500 mark in conference play tied the 2011 team’s winning percentage – head coach Karen Glover was named coach of the year during the season. The team’s 18 wins in 2013 season are the most since the 2002 squad recorded 22 wins.
The Catamounts await the remaining results from around the land before they receive their SoCon Tournament seeding. WCU could be slotted in the sixth through eighth seed.
Davidson 3, Elon 2ELON, N.C. – Four players finished in double-figure kills as the Davidson volleyball team topped Elon 3-2 in its final regular season match Saturday evening at Alumni Gym. The Wildcats took the match in set scores of 25-20, 21-25, 25-23, 22-25 and 15-7 to finish the season 16-14 overall and 7-9 in their final season of Southern Conference play.
The Cats need a win to keep any hopes of making the SoCon Tournament alive and did their part in winning three of their last four contests. However, Samford’s win over Wofford Saturday evening, combined with Davidson’s defeat of Elon put the Wildcats, Terriers and Phoenix into a three-way tie for the final two tournament berths. As Elon and Wofford claimed higher winning percentages among all three teams, the Wildcats finished one spot out of qualifying for the postseason.
Tindall Sewell led the Wildcats with a match-high 16 kills, hitting .517. She departs as the school and the SoCon’s all-time leader in attacking percentage at .359, and her sophomore hitting percentage of .430 also remains the SoCon’s single-season record.
Fellow senior Caroline Brown notched a double-double with 15 kills and 20 digs. Brown ends her career ranked eighth all-time in program history with 1,260 career kills and ninth in all-time digs with 1,248. She is also eighth with 124 career aces.
Taylor Pisel finished with 11 kills, adding a trio of block assists as well. Megan Chamberlin joined her in double-figure kills with 10, hitting .238 with four digs. Freshman Emily Franklin put down seven kills to hit .353 and posted a block and five block assists to lead the Cats to 7.0 team blocks.
Freshman Mikayle Derochie added 57 assists to her season tally for a total of 1,214. She enters the record books to rank seventh in Davidson history for single-season assists. Derochie also put up an ace and nine digs in the win.
Anastasia Owen had 11 digs and a pair of aces in helping the Cats’ defensive effort, while Morgan Shannon and Rachel Earnhardt also contributed with nine and eight balls dug, respectively.
The Phoenix had five players put down double-digit kills, led by the 14-kill effort of Cali Estes. Estes and Ana Nicksic each recorded 27 assists, while Esters also dug 20 balls and posted a pair of block assists. Ally Karle had 10 digs and four block assists, hitting .286 in the match. The Wildcats out hit the Phoenix .268 to .229 while each team earned 7.0 team blocks.
The teams traded points throughout the first half of the set, battling to a 15-15 tie. The Cats and the Phoenix knotted the score a few more times before settling at 19-19. A 4-0 run by Davidson put the Cats in front 23-19, and a pair of Phoenix errors would hand the Wildcats the set win at 25-20.
A 4-0 run by Davidson in the early stages of set two meant an 11-7 advantage, but the Phoenix swung the momentum in their favor with a 6-0 run to take a 13-11 lead. The teams tied the score three more times before Elon took a 22-19 advantage late in the set. Though Sewell added a pair of kills, Elon scored three of the last four points in grabbing the 25-21 win.
Another battled ensured in set three, as a 20-18 lead by the Phoenix became the largest separation between the two teams in the set. Elon took a 22-20 advantage in looking to close things out in the set, but the Wildcats rallied with kills from Brown and Chamberlin before an Elon error put the win in the hands of the Cats at 25-23.
It was again a close run between the teams in set four as they found themselves knotted at 19-19 after trading points most of the way. A pair of points pushed Elon in front 21-19 as Davidson called a timeout. Thought the Cats came within one on two separate occasions, they couldn’t close the gap and the Phoenix took two of the last three to take the set 25-22 and even the score at two sets apiece.
Unlike the close fights in the other sets, the fifth and final set absolutely belonged to the Wildcats, who took a 5-2 lead early on. The Cats then used a Derochie ace and a pair of kills from Brown for a 6-0 run in grabbing an 11-3 advantage. Pisel added in a pair of kills to set up match-point before Sewell slammed down one more to seal the deal at 15-7 and hand Davidson the 3-2 win.