College of Charleston
Georgia Southern
College of Charleston improves to 22-6 overall and 15-1 in the Southern Conference with 3-0 win at Georgia Southern
11/9/2008 5:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Boxscore - College of Charleston at Georgia Southern
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) dished out a match-high 37 assists and junior outside hitter Emily Sawin (New Lenox, Ill.) drilled 13 kills as the College of Charleston (22-6, 15-1) defeated Georgia Southern (15-16, 8-8) 3-0 Sunday afternoon in a Southern Conference match in Statesboro, Ga. The Cougars picked up the victory by scores of 27-25, 25-23 and 25-22.
Following a 3-3 tie early in Game 1, Georgia Southern used a 7-2 run to pull ahead 10-5 before the Cougars rallied back to within 15-12. With GSU leading 20-17, Charleston put together a 5-1 run to take its first lead since 3-2. From there, the two teams exchanged points to make it 23-22 before back-to-back scores by the Eagles gave them the lead at 24-23.
Facing set point, the Cougars responded quickly with a pair of kills by sophomore outside hitter Whitney Russell (Decatur, Ga.) and freshman middle blocker Elyse Chubb (Peachtree City, Ga.) to retake the lead at 25-24. Following a service error that tied the match at 25-25, Russell struck again, this time pairing with junior outside hitter Emily Sawin (New Lenox, Ill.) for consecutive kills to give Charleston a 27-25, come from behind victory and 1-0 match lead.
It remained an even match at the start of the second set as the teams battled through five ties and deadlocked at 5-5 before a pair of points gave CofC a 7-5 lead. After staying within two points over the next several rallies, Georgia Southern rallied to tie the set at 11-11 before a kill by Chubb and a GSU error made it 13-11. A 4-1 run, fueled by a service ace by freshman right side hitter Lauren Claybaugh and a pair of kills from senior outside hitter Christy Dowd, then gave the Eagles a 15-14 lead.
At that point, the teams would be separated by no more than two points over the next 11 scores. With GSU leading 21-19, a kill by sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) followed by three Eagle attack errors gave Charleston a 23-21 lead. From there, the Cougars would go on to close out the set with a 25-23 victory and take a commanding 2-0 match lead.
The match continued to be closely contested as neither team secured more than a three-point advantage in reaching an 11-11 tie in Game 3. Charleston then used a 4-1 rally to take a 15-12 lead and extended that to 20-16. At that point, the Eagles closed to within 21-19 and 23-22 before CofC put the set, and the match, away at 25-22 with back-to-back kills by Whitney Russell.
Christy Dowd led Georgia Southern with a match-high tying 13 kills and hit .375 while freshman outside hitter Bethany Sanford finished with eight kills and a match-high 13 digs. Senior setter Mae Chabra led the Eagles with a team-high 35 assists and freshman outside hitter Hayli Ketner finished with 11 digs. Junior libero Cristin Haines added eight digs.
For the College of Charleston, Emily Sawin led the way with a match-high tying 13 kills and added nine digs while Elyse Chubb and Whitney Russell each added 10 kills. Chubb finished with a hitting percentage of .389 and tallied three blocks and Russell notched two block assists. Cole Dawley setup the offense with 37 assists and totaled seven digs, six kills and a .556 hitting percentage while freshman defensive specialist Hayley Harrell (Charleston, S.C.) and freshman libero Emily Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) each finished with 12 digs.
The victory for the Cougars is their 10th straight and 17th in their last 18 matches and keeps them firmly atop the Southern Conference standings with a 15-1 mark.
Charleston will wrap up the regular season conference schedule next weekend at home with a pair of matches from November 15-16. The Cougars will host Western Carolina at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 15 at The Porter-Gaud School and Appalachian State at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 16 at Bishop England High School.
Players Mentioned
