BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - College of Charleston swept Elon, 3-0, in the quarterfinal round of the Southern Conference Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Samford's Pete Hanna Center.
The Cougars advanced to the semifinal round for the 12th time in 13 appearances in the conference tournament. College of Charleston will face Appalachian State who won the early quarterfinal round against Georgia Southern. The win was the 10th straight for College of Charleston and fifth straight sweep.
College of Charleston senior Elyse Chubb tied a season high with 17 kills in the match, hitting .394. Her performance gives her 1202 kills for her career, moving her into 10th place all-time in the Cougar record books.
Freshman Sloane White made 11 kills with an attack mark of .400. Sophomore Taeler Davis made 42 assists, her most for a three-set match this season. Redshirt-junior Emily Shelton led the defense with 15 digs while senior Hayley Harrell managed 13 digs.
"I was very happy to get a 3-0 win today," head coach Jason Kepner said. "We played very well at times and a little tentative at times. I thought our defense was great as we gave ourselves tons of opportunities, but we need to be more efficient offensively. "I look forward to our team making a few small adjustments tomorrow against a talented Appalachian State team."
Elon was led by seven kills from Chanelle Smith and 27 digs from Ali Deatsch. However, the Phoenix were only able to hit .034 for the match.
College of Charleston opened up the first set midway through, extending a 10-8 lead to 16-9 with consecutive blocks from Havel. The Cougars quickly used the momentum to race to set point at 24-13. However, the Phoenix refused to relent by winning the next five points, before Deatsch served into the net to give the Cougars a 25-18 set one victory. Chubb scored five kills in the set, while the Cougars defense held Elon to a .000 hitting percentage as Shelton made six digs and Zbojniewicz tallied five.
Charleston had similar problems getting out in front of Elon early in the second set. Neither team could string together points as they worked to an 8-8 tie. However, the Cougars went on an explosive run again, winning 11 of the next 13 points to lead 19-10. Elon was only able to produce one small run and the Cougars again served set point-14. Kris Harris landed consecutive kills for the Phoenix, but CofC won the second set, 25-17. Chubb and White each tallied five kills in the set with White hitting .500 to lead the team.
The third set was the most closely contested of the match as Elon cut a 16-10 Cougars lead to 16-14 and a 21-15 CofC lead to 21-18. College of Charleston finished off the Phoenix with a block from Havel, a kill from White and a final kill from Havel to give Charleston a 25-20 set victory.
Sunday's semifinal match against Appalachian State will begin at 3 p.m. ET. Fans can follow all of the action with streaming video on SoConSports.com.
