The College of Charleston volleyball team defeated Georgia Southern 3-0 (30-16, 31-29, 30-23) in the first round of the 2007 Southern Conference Tournament. The 3-0 victory marks the 16th shutout posted by the College this season and the second over Georgia Southern.
With the win, Charleston improves to 23-7 this season. The win also improved the team's SoCon Tournament record to 17-4 since 1998. Georgia Southern finishes their season with a 10-21 overall record, including 7-11 in league action.
“It is nice to get the first match out of the way. Our middles really carried us and the experience that our seniors have at this tournament really helped us in the match,” Coach Jason Kepner said. “We did a lot of very good things tonight and also saw a few things that we need to work on for tomorrow.”
Four service aces, including consecutive aces by sophomore Brooke Truxillo, led Charleston to a 30-16 win over the Eagles in game one. Charleston owned a 5-2 lead before the Eagles tied the game at five with a service ace by Jessica Bradford. A block by senior Tiffany Blum gave the Cougars a 7-5 lead. A kill by Deanna Patrick put the Cougars into double digits leading 10-6. Charleston scored four unanswered points, forcing Georgia Southern to use their first timeout of the game at the 14-7 mark. A kill by Blum gave the Cougars their 20th point of the game and extend their lead to 10. GSU would only score four more times before a ball handling error gave Charleston the game.
The second game of the match saw the teams tie 15 times before CofC won 31-29, giving the team a 2-0 lead in the match. The Cougars took a two point lead at 7-5 off a kill by Annie Uthe.
A block by Uthe and Emily Sawin extended the Charleston lead to two at the 11-9 mark. Georgia Southern took a 17-16 lead, their first lead of the game since the 3-2 mark, off a kill by Michelle Uzoh. A ball handling error by the Eagles gave Charleston its 17th point to tie the match for the 11th time. The game would tie three more times before a kill by Blum gave Charleston a 24-23 lead. The Cougars would not trail the Eagles for the rest of the game. Georgia Southern tied the game for the 15th and final time at 29 after a kill by Lancaster. Charleston would take the game after a ball handling error by Georgia Southern.
A kill by Sawin in the final game gave the Cougars their first opening point of the match. A service ace by Cole Dawley would extend the Charleston lead to 8-3. A Blum kill that made it a 9-3 game forced GSU to call its first timeout. Following the timeout, Georgia Southern scored the next three points. A kill by Uthe would give Charleston its 10th point. Charleston used a 4-0 run to extend their lead to 15-9. GSU never gave up and narrowed the CofC lead to five at 18-13. The teams traded 4-0 runs that resulted in a 25-19 CofC lead. A service error by Georgia Southern sealed the game and the match for the College, 30-23.
Charleston was led by Tiffany Blum who went 15 for 27 for a match-high .556 hitting percentage. Two additional Cougars recorded double-digit kills with Uthe earning 12 (.455) and Sawin with 10 (.292). Adding to the offensive effort was seven service aces, including three by Dawley. Lindsey Kane paced the Cougars with 39 assists. Defensively, Blum recorded five blocks, while four Cougars combined for nine more. Dawley led the team in digs with 13, while Kane added 11 of her own.
For the Eagles, Uzoh led the team with a .526 hitting percentage, converting 10 of 19 attempts into kills. Bailey Coleman and Bianca Julio each earned double-digit kills with 10 and 12, respectively. Bradford tied the match-high 39 assists to pace the Eagles offensive effort. Libero Flavia Pereira recorded 18 digs to pace the defense. Uzoh also led the team in blocks with five. Five players combined for seven additional blocks in the effort.
Charleston returns to the court Saturday, Nov. 18 at 2:30 where they will face the winner of the Elon/Chattanooga match. Results will be available at www.CofCSports.com
