College of Charleston
Wofford
Charleston downs Wofford 3-0
11/9/2007 5:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The College of Charleston volleyball team defeated Wofford 3-0 (30-26, 30-15, 30-23) in the first of two matches this weekend. Freshman Cole Dawley earned a double-double in the contest, leading the team in hitting with .348, converting 10 of her 23 attacks into kills, and in digs with 15. Senior Annie Uthe posted a match-high six blocks, including three solo blocks.
Charleston holds the top spot in the Southern Conference with a 15-2 record, and is 21-7 overall. Wofford drops to 9-21 overall and 2-15 in league play.
“We started a little flat in game one but really turned it up at the start of the second game," head coach Jason Kepner said. "Anytime you can go on the road and win 3-0, it is a good win. We now need to get focused for our last regular season conference match against a really good Furman team.
Wofford scored the first point in the match before Charleston answered with three points of its own to bring the score to 3-1. The teams traded back-to-back 4-0 runs that tied the game at eight. Wofford took the lead off a kill by Joanna Suddath. CofC scored three consecutive points to take control of the lead at 13-11. The score tied five times on the next nine possessions before a bad set by Suddath followed by a kill by Tiffany Blum gave Charleston the lead for the remainder of the game. The team scored seven of the final 10 points to take game one 30-26.
Charleston scored 15 of the first 21 points in the second game, which forced Wofford to call the first timeout of the game at the 15-6 mark. The Cougars followed the timeout with a 4-0 run before Wofford scored three consecutive points to bring the score to 16-12. Emily Sawin earned back-to-back kills which was followed by two consecutive Cougar blocks to give Charleston a 23-13 advantage. Wofford would score only two more points before a Dawley kill gave the College the win in game two.
Game three saw the teams trade points on each of the first 12 possessions before a kill by Deanna Patrick gave the Cougars an 8-6 lead. The Cougars scored on 10 of the next 16 possessions that gave the team a six-point advantage at the 18-12mark. Wofford went on a 6-0 run to narrow the Charleston lead to four at the 20-16 mark, before Charleston scored consecutive points to extend its lead to 21-16. CofC had two 4-0 runs that sandwiched a Terrier point that put the game out of reach for Wofford. The match-point, which sealed the Cougars 15th shutout of the season, was won off a Dawley kill.
Patrick earned nine kills in the win, with Sawin adding eight of her own. Four additional Cougars combined for 17 kills, for a team hitting percentage of .215. The match also saw five service aces from five different players. The defense was paced by four Cougars, Sawin (10), Dawley (15), Megan Parkerson (13) and Lindsey Kane (12), each of whom earned double-digit digs. Blum posted five blocks, including one solo block, while five players recorded at least one block.
The Terriers were held to a .066 team hitting percentage, the eighth time in 21 wins that the Cougars held their opponent to less than a .100 hitting percentage. Shanna Hughes and Liz Sheets notched nine kills each to lead the Terrier offense. Six Terriers combined for 17 additional kills. Sheets and Catelyn Amende posted three blocks each in the effort.
