College of Charleston
The Citadel
Cougars Close out John Kresse Arena with 3-0 victory over The Citadel in front of Arena Volleyball record crowd of 1,547
11/5/2008 5:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Boxscore - The Citadel at College of Charleston
CHARLESTON, S.C. - In front of a John Kresse Arena volleyball record crowd of 1,547 raucous fans junior outside hitter Emily Sawin (New Lenox, Ill.) drilled a match-high 14 kills and hit .478 while freshman middle blocker Elyse Chubb (Peachtree City, Ga.) totaled eight kills and six blocks as the College of Charleston (20-6, 13-1) handed The Citadel (8-20, 1-13) a 3-0 defeat Wednesday evening in a Southern Conference match. The Cougars took the final match in the Arena by scores of 25-14, 25-15 and a season-best mark, 25-9.
The College of Charleston, fresh off of clinching the 2008 Southern Conference South Division Title, came out strong early and jumped out to a 9-4 lead behind five kills and four Bulldog errors. With the score at 16-10, the Cougars used an 8-2 run to force set point at 24-12 before closing out Game 1 with a 25-14 victory to go up 1-0 in the match.
It was a different story at the start of Game 2 as the two teams battled through four ties to reach 4-4 before a 3-0 CofC run made it 7-4. Despite the mini-run, The Citadel would keep the set close and narrowed the margin to 9-7 and 12-10 before an 11-3 Cougar charge pushed the lead to a commanding 23-13 advantage.
Following consecutive scores by the Bulldogs to make it 23-15, Emily Sawin and sophomore right side hitter Ginny Phillips (Raleigh, N.C.) put the set away with back-to-back kills, 25-15, and gave Charleston a two-game advantage. In the set, Sawin delivered eight kills and registered a .636 hitting percentage while sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) dished out 14 assists.
Sophomore middle blocker Jessica Maas opened the third set with a kill that put The Citadel up 1-0 and then it was all downhill for the Bulldogs as Charleston responded with a dominant 19-3 run that featured 11 kills, four by Elyse Chubb, to go up 19-4. Four more kills and a pair of forced errors closed out the set, and John Kresse Arena, at 25-9.
The Game 3 score marks the first time this season that the Cougars have held an opponent to single digits in a non-deciding match.
Maas led The Citadel with seven kills and three blocks while senior setter Emily Hill finished with 11 assists and a team-high tying four digs. Sophomore middle blocker Amanda Beal added six kills while senior outside hitter Rachel Sanders totaled five kills four digs and two blocks. As a team, the Bulldogs were held to a .000 hitting percentage.
For Charleston, Sawin led all hitters with 14 kills and a .478 hitting percentage while Elyse Chubb finished with eight kills, six blocks and a .429 hitting percentage. Whitney Russell hit at a .438 clip and added nine kills. Cole Dawley dished out a match-high 36 assists to go along with nine digs, three blocks and four kills.
Defensively, freshman libero Emily Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) turned up a match-high 11 digs while Ginny Phillips and junior middle blocker Jennifer Darty (Orlando, Fla.) each added four blocks on the night.
As a team, the Cougars far surpassed their season-high in hitting percentage with a mark of .420, eclipsing the .364 they set against The Citadel on September 5 of this year, and tied their three-set high with 46 kills. Charleston also reached that mark on September 20 against Gardner-Webb and on October 19 vs. Chattanooga. Additionally, the Cougars committed a season low 12 errors.
Charleston has now won its last eight matches, and 15 of its last 16, to improve to 13-1 in the Southern Conference.
The Cougars continue their Southern Conference schedule when they travel to Davidson for a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday, November 7 before wrapping up the weekend on Sunday, November 9 with a 2:00 p.m. match at Georgia Southern.
Record-Setting
On the final night of play in John Kresse Arena, a facility record 1,547 fans watched the Cougars defeat The Citadel 3-0. It surpassed the mark of 1,228 fans in attendance on November 11, 2005 to witness a 3-0 win over Georgia Southern that moved the Cougars to 27-1 on their way to a 32-2 season. This evening's crowd is the second largest ever to see a College of Charleston volleyball match.
On November 29, 2007, 1,759 fans were in attendance for the NCAA Tournament First Round match-up with the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Fla.
NOTES
Charleston will play its final two home matches against Western Carolina on November 15 at the Porter-Gaud School and against Appalachian State on November 16 at Bishop England High School ... the Cougars will move into the brand new, state-of-the-art Carolina First Arena in 2009 ... Cole Dawley has now recorded 30 or more assists in 12 of her last 14 matches.
ALL-TIME JOHN KRESSE ARENA VOLLEYBALL ATTENDANCE RECORDS
1. 1,547 ? November 5, 2008 vs. The Citadel
2. 1,228 ? November 11, 2005 vs. Georgia Southern
3. 846 ? October 29, 2004 vs. Georgia Southern
ALL-TIME COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON VOLLEYBALL ATTENDANCE RECORDS
1. 1,759 ? November 29, 2007 at Florida %
2. 1,547 ? November 5, 2008 vs. The Citadel
3. 1,228 ? November 11, 2005 vs. Georgia Southern
4. 1,127 ? October 29, 2003 at Georgia Southern
5. 1,078 ? September 8, 2006 vs. Wichita State @
6. 861 ? September 15, 2007 at Iowa
7. 846 ? October 29, 2004 vs. Georgia Southern
8. 804 ? November 11, 1998 at Clemson
9. 802 ? September 7, 2007 at Notre Dame
% NCAA Tournament
@ GSK-Carolina Classic, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Players Mentioned
