College of Charleston
Furman
Charleston Downs Second-Place Furman 3-0 in SoCon Volleyball Action
10/13/2007 4:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Whitney Russell's 13 kills led the Charleston volleyball team to a 3-0 (30-20, 30-15, 30-28) victory over the second-place Furman Paladins to remain number one in the Southern Conference.
With the win, Charleston improves to 13-6 and 8-1 in the Southern Conference. Furman falls to 6-2 in the conference and 13-5 overall.
“This was a great win today. The team worked extremely hard and was really focused throughout the entire match,” said Head Coach Jason Kepner. “We communicated very well and our seniors really led us on offense and defense. To win 3-0 at home against a very good Furman team was what we needed to get back on track. I look forward tomorrow's match against Wofford.”
Furman's Nicole Palazzo opened game one with a kill, but Charleston quickly got on track, tying the game at five. Charleston then took the lead off of a Lindsey Kane service ace and never gave it back to the Paladins. Leading 13-7, a Cougar block forced Furman to take a timeout. Furman took its second timeout of the game after Charleston extended its lead to 21-11. Charleston took the game 30-20 after Furman's Alison West had an attack error.
After trailing 3-1 in game two, Charleston took the lead and held it for the remainder of the game after scoring 13 consecutive points, forcing Furman to call timeouts at the 18-12 and 22-12 marks. Furman could not find an answer to the Cougar offensive attack. Charleston took game two 30-15
Game three saw the teams tie 12 times before Charleston won 30-28. The game began with a Furman kill, but Charleston answered with a kill of its own. Charleston took a 14-10 lead before Furman scored six of the next eight points to tie the game at 16, forcing a CofC timeout. Charleston made it a 28-24 game before Furman scored three consecutive points and narrowed Charleston's lead to one. The Cougars responded with two unanswered points. A kill by Blum sealed the game and the match for Charleston.
The double-digit kills by Russell, Tiffany Blum (13), and Annie Uthe (10) sparked the CofC offense which combined for a total 54 kills in the match. Setter Lindsey Kane paced the Cougars with 42 assists, while recording four kills, six digs, and two assisted blocks.
Defensively, Charleston was led by Blum who tallied three assisted blocks. Adding to the defensive effort was Uthe and Russell with two blocks each. Megan Parkerson recorded a team high 11 digs, with Emily Sawin adding nine of her own.
For Furman, Chibuzo Aguocha led the team with 19 kills for a .324 attack percentage. Emily Harby was second on the team in kills with eight. Setter Courtney Stewardson recorded 39 assists and had one solo block in the effort.
Harby led the Paladin defense with a match high five blocks, with Kerry Wooten earning three of her own. Also in on the defensive effort were Stewardson, Aguocho, and Palazzo who combined for six blocks.
Charleston hosts the Wofford Terriers Sunday, Oct. 14 in a 2 p.m. conference match. Live stats will be available at www.cofc.edu.
