College of Charleston
Georgia Southern
Charleston Beats Georgia Southern 3-1 in Volleyball Action
10/5/2007 4:00:00 AM | Volleyball
College of Charleston's career blocks leader Tiffany Blum recorded her 500th career block in Friday's 3-1 (30-22, 30-14, 27-30, 30-25) win over SoCon foe Georgia Southern. With the win, CofC improves to 11-5 overall and is a sterling 6-0 in league play while Georgia Southern falls to 5-14 and 2-5 in the Southern Conference.
“It's nice to be back at home in front of a big crowd. The team played really well in games one and two really controlling all aspects of the game,” Head Coach Jason Kepner said. “After the break we came out a little flat and had a hard time getting going in game three. We came out better in the fourth game but let Georgia Southern stick around with errors from our own side. We finished strong in the fourth game and it feels good to be 6-0 in conference play.
Game one saw four Cougars with four kills and senior Annie Uthe adding five to the total. The Cougars took a 14-11 lead after a block by Emily Sawin and Annie Uthe. The lead extended to 17-12 after a kill by Tiffany Blum. After a time out, the Eagles narrowed the lead to 20-18. Charleston held onto the lead until Blum scored the game point.
Deanna Patrick and Sawin led the Cougars with four kills each in game two. Charleston took a 14-8 lead after Uthe, Patrick, and Lindsey Kane combined for two consecutive assisted blocks. The plays forced Georgia Southern to take a time out. The Cougars followed the time out by scoring three consecutive points, extending their lead to 19-8. Kane recorded an assisted block and a solo block before two Megan Parkerson service aces clinched game two 30-14.
Georgia Southern took game three 30-27 after a 4-0 to end the game. Charleston scored four points before a service ace by Georgia Southern's Lindsay O'Connor tied the game at 6. The Eagles held onto the lead until an attack error by Gorana Bacic tied the game at 12. The game remained within one point until Uthe tallied a kill for a 23-21 Charleston lead. The kill forced Georgia Southern to call a timeout. The Eagles scored the next four points, retaking the lead, 25-23. A Uthe kill tied the game at 26 before Georgia Southern scored on the next four plays, forcing the match into a fourth game.
The Eagles jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Charleston scored five points giving them a 5-3 lead. GSU scored twice to narrow the lead to 13-11. Charleston answered with four points to give the team a 17-12 advantage. GSU battled their way back to within one before Patrick scored two consecutive points for Charleston, giving them a 25-22 lead. Charleston scored four of the next six points before a kill by Russell caused Georgia Southern to call a timeout at the 29-24 mark. Charleston scored the match point off of an attack error by Gorana Bacic.
The Cougars had three players in Patrick (15), Uthe (16), and Russell (13) with double digit kills. Blum, Sawin and Kane combined for 19 additional kills. Megan Parkerson earned five service aces in the match, while Blum and Kane earned two a piece. Defensively for the Cougars, Kane led the team in blocks with two solo blocks and five assisted blocks. Uthe had six assisted blocks while Blum added one solo block and four assisted blocks. Three other players tallied blocks in the win.
Gorana Bacic led the Eagles offense with 13 kills with Michelle Uzoh adding eight kills in the effort. Uzoh also led the team in blocks with one solo and four assisted blocks. Four other Eagles notched at least one block.
The team will host their annual alumni match Saturday, October 6 at 2 p.m. before returning to conference action Tuesday, October 9 when they travel to Chattanooga for a 7 p.m. match.
