The College of Charleston volleyball team extended their winning-streak to nine matches with a shutout victory over the Winthrop Eagles 3-0 in the final home match of the 2007 season.
With the win, Charleston improves 26-7 this season while Winthrop ends its season 20-12.
“It's great to end the regular season with a 3-0 win against the regular season Big South champion,” said Coach Jason Kepner. “This definitely helped prepare us for the NCAA Tournament next weekend.”
Winthrop opened with a 5-3 lead before a kill by Tiffany Blum tied game one at five. The game tied again at seven but three Eagle points gave Winthrop at 10-7 advantage. Charleston battled back to take a 13-12 lead of a Blum kill. A service ace by Emily Sawin and an attack error extended the Cougar lead to three. Winthrop knotted the score at 16 but Charleston answered with three unanswered points that forced Winthrop to use its first timeout at the 19-16 mark. Charleston scored five of the next seven points to force another Eagle timeout at the 24-18 mark. The Cougars took game one 30-21 off a Winthrop service error.
Charleston scored seven of the opening nine points to open the second game of the match. Winthrop fought back within three at the 10-7 mark. CofC scored eight of the next nine points to make it an 18-8 game which caused Winthrop to call a timeout. The Cougars 20th point came off a Dawley kill. Winthrop used back-to-back kills by Shannon Sitzmann to gain its 12th and 13th points but it would not be enough as Charleston would hit a .483 and take game two 30-16.
Winthrop took a 5-1 lead in the third game before Charleston scored three points to bring the game with 5-4. Winthrop extended their lead to 11-8 before a Sawin kill sparked an 8-0 run that gave the Cougars a 16-12 lead. A block by Sara Felts ended the CofC run and gave Winthrop its 13th points. Three straight Cougar points made it a 19-13 game. Winthrop used a late rally to come with in five at the 29-24 mark but would not come any closer as the College would take the game and the match 30-24 off a kill by Blum.
Blum (.480), Sawin (.450), and Annie Uthe (.429) each earned a hitting percentage of over .400 to lead the team to a .361 total hitting percentage. Blum and Sawin each recorded double-digit kills with 15 and 10, respectively. Setter Lindsey Kane paced the offense with a match-high 37 assists. Uthe led the defense with three blocks while Sawin, Blum, and Dawley had two each.
Kelly Taylor led the team in with a .368 hitting percentage, converting eight of 19 attacks into kills, while making just one error. Sitzmann notched nine kills, while Kellie Sellers recorded six. The Cougar defense held the Eagles to a .104 team hitting percentage. Felts led the team in blocks with two, with Kelsey Hall and Taylor adding one block each. Po'hai Nu'uhiwa recorded a match-high 12 digs.
Charleston returns to action next weekend in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The selection show for the tournament will be shown on ESPNU Sunday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m.
