UNC Asheville 3, The Citadel 1
CHARLESTON S.C. – The Citadel volleyball team fell to UNC Asheville over five sets on Friday evening at The Citadel Tournament in McAlister Field House.
While The Citadel (5-8) picked up wins in both the second and third sets, it ultimately fell to UNC Asheville 25-22, 25-17, 11-25, 25-18, 15-12. In the Bulldogs 25-11 win in the third set, the squad earned a .471 attack percentage.
Sophomore Moriah Smith posted a match-high 19 digs for an attack percentage of .417. The outside hitter is currently second in the SoCon in kills, averaging 3.84 per set. Senior Bailey Kernodle also earned 19 kills, along with nine digs.
Junior Samantha Espy recorded a match-high 18 digs for the Bulldogs, while junior Megan Sowell earned 15 digs.
Senior setter Rachel Keefer led the way in assists, with a match-high 52.
The Citadel volleyball team continues the tournament tomorrow as they play North Florida at 11:30 a.m. and will round out the tournament at 5 p.m. against Wright State.
ETSU 3, Marshall 0
ETSU 3 , Morehead State 1
MOREHEAD, Ky. – The ETSU volleyball team won a pair of matches Friday at the Comfort Inn-Vitational to extend its winning streak to four. The Bucs picked up a 3-0 victory over Marshall and a 3-1 win over Morehead State. With the pair of wins, ETSU improves to 7-4 this season.
ETSU knocked off Marshall in three sets due to its work both offensively and defensively. The Bucs hit a season-high .333 in 84 attempts and totaled 10 blocks to notch their third consecutive sweep. Briana Allmon’s 13 kills led the Bucs’ offense, while Khadijah Wiley and Kristen Favre were a force on the block totaling seven and six, respectively.
ETSU put together its best set of the match in terms of hitting percentage against Morehead State, hitting .324. The Bucs scored eight of the last nine points in the second to take the stanza, 25-16. The duo of Allmon and Milhorn combined for 10 of the Bucs’ 13 kills in the set. .
In the fourth set, the Bucs and Eagles were neck-and-neck in the fourth frame as the teams were tied at 10 different points, but it was ETSU who pulled through winning the set, 27-25.
ETSU, now 7-4 this season, will look to keep things rolling when it closes out the Comfort Inn-Vitational Saturday at 11 a.m. against Akron.
Furman 3, Charlotte 1
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Behind a career-high 15 kills from Carris Campbell, Furman volleyball downed Charlotte, 3-1 (26-24, 23-25, 25-22, 25-22), on Friday evening in Halton Arena. The win moves the Paladins to 6-4 on the year while the loss drops Charlotte to 3-7.
Campbell finished with a career-high 15 kills, hitting .538 with two blocks, while Annie Bierman put down a team-high 16 kills and a career-high 24 digs for her sixth double-double on the season. Taina Joseph finished with a season-high tying 14 kills and Meg DeMaar added 22 digs.
Furman came out swinging in set four, jumping out to a 6-1 lead and forcing Charlotte to take an early timeout. The teams traded points until Charlotte cut the lead to four at 8-4, then again at 10-6. The 49ers used back-to-back points to cut the Paladin lead to two at 10-8, then to one at 11-10, before a kill by Carris Campbell pushed Furman’s lead back to two at 12-10. Charlotte again cut the lead to one at 12-11, but three-straight points by Furman pushed the lead to four at 15-11 and forced Charlotte to take its final timeout.
Furman pushed its lead to 18-12, but the 49ers used three-straight points to cut the lead to three at 18-15 and force a Paladin timeout. Out of the timeout, Furman pushed its lead to four at 19-15, but the 49ers again rallied to cut the lead to two at 19-17. Charlotte then used a 4-1 run to take a 21-20 lead and force a Furman timeout. Out of the timeout, the 49ers pushed their lead to two at 22-20, but the Paladins finished the set on a 5-0 run to take it, 25-22, and the match, 3-1.
Furman is back in action next weekend when the Paladins open SoCon play in Alley Gym on Friday night.
Rice 3, UNCG 0
WACO, Texas – UNCG lost the first set Friday afternoon and could not quite recover falling in three sets (16-25, 22-25, 22-25) to Rice in the first match of the Baylor Classic inside the Ferrell Center. The Spartans had their seven-match winning streak snapped and moved to 10-3 overall while the Owls are now 9-3 on their campaign.
UNCG faced a stern test against Rice as the Owls previously picked up victories over LSU and Colorado, but the Spartans held their own late in the second and third sets before eventually suffering the sweep.
Junior outside hitter Jessica Brezwyn led the Spartan offensive efforts with 12 kills while sophomore outside Ashley Muench also reached double figures at 10. Senior defensive specialist Katherine Santiago was all over the floor and picked up 21 digs to average seven per set. UNCG ended up with a .162 hitting percentage tallying 35 kills in 117 attempts with 16 errors. Rice hit over .300 and knocked down 46 kills on 111 attempts with 12 errors for a .306 mark. The Owls also had the better of the digging 57-40 and the blocking 7.0 to 3.0. The Spartans held the upper hand in service aces 6-2 as senior middle hitter Julia Westerbur recorded two of her own.
The Spartans will play two matches tomorrow facing off against Baylor at 11 a.m. and Stephen F. Austin at 5:30 p.m.
Samford 3, Akron 0
Marshall 3, Samford 0
MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Samford University volleyball team worked its way to a 1-1 split with a win against Akron University and a defeat to Marshall University on Friday, inside Wetherby Gym at the Comfort Inn-Vitational hosted by Morehead State University.
The Bulldogs (4-5) thought to have turned a corner after a 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-14) thumping of the Zips (6-5) in the early morning matchup of the invitational but faced adversity in the evening matchup against the Herd (9-4) and fell 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-21).
Offensively the team had quite possibly their best outing of the season as they hit .414 for the match with a high of .611 in the first set of play. Samford only committed 10 attack errors in the match thanks in part to a pair of outstanding performances from junior Gabbi Greenwald and redshirt sophomore T.J. Russell.
Greenwald paced the Bulldogs with nine kills with no attack errors while Russell contributed eight kills with no errors.
The Bulldogs dropped the match against Marshall with offensive numbers contrasting to the ones put up earlier in the day. The team committed a total nine attack errors, just one shy of the 10 committed during the entire first match, in the first set alone.
The team responded in the second and third sets to give the Herd an intense battle. However, the duo of Taylor Pelton and Cassie Weaver proved to be too much as the pair posted 15 kills and 14 kills respectively in the match. Defensively, it was libero Allie Kellerman who stole the show as she recorded 19 digs in the three-set match.
Samford will close out the invitational against host Morehead State on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Chattanooga 3, Liberty 0
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Chattanooga Mocs volleyball team shutout Liberty in the first match of the Hokie Invitational. UTC is on a five-match winning streaking, the last four being three-set victories.
This is the best start for Chattanooga since the 1986 season when the team posted 10 wins in a row to kick off the year.
UTC won the first and third frames 25-23, with a convincing 25-16 showing in the second.
Two Mocs posted double-digit kills, junior Allie Davenport tallied 12 and senior Lauren Gainer recorded 10. Gainer led the squad with a .529 hitting percentage and four block assists. Senior Catherine Chason paced the team at 11 digs, while senior Briana Reid and freshman Rachel Petkosh followed with 10.
Sophomore Lauren Greenspoon racked up 40 assists. She averages 11.32 a set, ranking her No. 30 nationally.
The Mocs hit the court Saturday to face host Virginia Tech at 10 a.m. and Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m. to close out their last regular season tournament.
Western Carolina 3, Idaho 1
Tennessee Tech 3, Western Carolina 1
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Western Carolina volleyball team won its opening match of the 2015 Golden Eagle Invitational against Idaho 3-1 before falling to the host, Tennessee Tech, 3-1 in the night cap. Sophomore Jo-Leigh Vervelde, who came into the week leading the NCAA in triple-doubles, completed her fifth triple-double of the season in the win over Idaho and came up just one kill shy of her sixth against Tennessee Tech.
With the split the Catamounts record moved to 6-8 overall. Idaho fell to 2-8 after the loss to WCU while Tennessee Tech improved to 2-10 with the victory.
Over the two matches freshman Savannah Kohlhagen led the Catamounts with 21 total kills while Vervelde came in a close second with 20 kills.
In the opening match against Idaho, Vervelde finished with 11 kills, 19 assists and 21 digs. She also had a pair of blocks and a service ace. Sophomore Kaycey Cermin and freshman Alyssa Zupan each had 10 kills in the victory. Cermin added a team-high four blocks including three solo stops. Zupan finished with a double-double with 11 digs. Kohlhagen contributed nine kills and 12 digs in the victory.
Senior setter Cristina Nazrio led the team with 20 assists and 14 digs while senior libero Elyssa Mulheron added a team-high 25 digs while also being credited with seven assists.
Against Tennessee Tech, Kohlhagen led the way offensively with 12 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore Katie O’Connor added 10 kills and four blocks while Vervelde had nine kills, 25 assists and 15 digs. Cermin once again led the team in blocks with five while also adding eight kills. Zupan also had eight kills to go along with 10 digs.
Nazario had 22 assists and six digs while Mulheron added 23 digs.
The Golden Eagles were led by Cody Dodd who had a match-high 25 kills and 10 digs. Kellie Williams added 13 kills while Little had 12 kills and 11 digs.
The Catamounts will be back in action tomorrow at noon as they face Towson in their final match of the Golden Eagle Invitational.
Wofford 3, Charleston Southern 2
COLUMBIA, S.C. – After dropping the first two sets to Charleston Southern, the Wofford volleyball team rallied to earn a five-set victory (17-25, 16-25, 31-29, 25-21, 15-11) Friday afternoon at the Carolina Classic, hosted by South Carolina.
The Terriers began the comeback by holding off CSU in a grueling third. Wofford led 24-21, only to see the Buccaneers save three straight set points and eight set points in all. Sophomore Bella Santoro finally got Wofford on the board on the ninth try, 31-29, forcing a fourth.
CSU (3-10) looked primed to put the match away. The Buccaneers used an 11-3 run to go in front 20-12 in the fourth and were just five points from victory. However, the Terriers put on a huge rally, scoring seven straight and ending the set on an incredible 13-1 run to take the set 25-21.
It brought the match to a fifth set, where the Terriers prevailed. Again, they came from behind to do so, erasing Charleston Southern’s 6-2 lead with an 8-1 run and capping off the comeback on a dump set from sophomore Molly Mayo.
It marked the first time in over six years that Wofford (6-6) came back from two sets down to win. The last time it had been done was September 4, 2009 at Gardner-Webb.
Redshirt freshman Lauren Miller led the charge, hitting .312 with a career-high 20 kills. She added 10 digs for her second collegiate double-double. Sophomore middle Danni Densford was also impressive with 12 kills at a .310 pace, tacking on a match-high six blocks. Mayo earned a double-double as well with 47 assists and 14 digs.
Senior libero Jessica Graham went for a season-high 27 digs. In doing so, she became the second Terrier in history to eclipse 1,500 career digs. The Goose Creek, S.C., native is 129 back of the program record held by Reagan Styles of 1,631 digs.
The Terriers play two more on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m., against East Carolina. Wofford completes the Carolina Classic at 7 p.m., against host South Carolina.