College of Charleston
Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern Volleyball Defeats College of Charleston, 3-1
10/27/2012 1:31:00 AM | Volleyball
The win puts the Eagles (19-6, 10-1) squarely in first place in the SoCon South Division, while College of Charleston (18-7, 9-2) falls one game back into second place.
GSU outdug the Cougars 64-55 and held a 12-5 edge in blocks on the match as the Eagle defense stifled Charleston's league-leading attack. The Cougars hit just .117 on the match with 26 errors, while Georgia Southern hit .254.
CofC's Darcy Dorton was the only Cougar to reach double digits in kills as she tallied her 12th double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs. Sloane White and Melissa Morello each made eight kills, but combined to hit just .105. Emily Shelton led CofC with 12 digs.
The Eagles used a match-high 17 kills from Moriah Bellissimo and 13 kills from Meredith Paskert to hold leads throughout nearly all of the second, third and fourth sets. Kate Van Dyke recorded 47 assists and Alexandra Beecher made 23 digs for the Eagles.
College of Charleston jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the first set after consecutive GSU hitting errors. A kill from Dorton put the Cougars up 15-6, but the Eagles went on a 6-1 run to establish their first momentum of the match and cut the margin to 16-12. CofC responded with a 7-2 run of its own to take a 23-14 lead after a Shelton ace and a kill from Emily Neideffer. The Cougars won the set on a kill from Dorton, 25-16. White had six kills and no errors in the first frame, as CofC outhit Georgia Southern, .375-.156.
Georgia Southern scored the first two points of the second set and the Cougars could not catch up, despite a 6-0 run that cut a 13-6 lead to just 13-12 after a Paskert attack error. The Eagles responded to win six of the next seven points and built an insurmountable 19-13 lead. A kill from Jamie DeRatt ended the set for GSU, 25-17.
In the third set, CofC battled early by taking advantage of a number of GSU errors. An ace from Morello made the score 9-8 but a number of GSU blocks sparked a run to put the Eagles up 14-9. Kills from Crysten Curry and Kym Coley gave the Eagles a 19-11 lead, as GSU went on to win the third set, 25-15.
With their backs against the wall, College of Charleston battled for every point in the fourth set, cutting the GSU lead to 11-10 after two consecutive kills from Morello. The teams continued to side out until a 5-0 Eagle run stretched a 14-13 game to 19-13 and reestablished the Georgia Southern momentum. College of Charleston fought back with kills from Dorton and Catey Warren and two Eagle errors to make it 19-17 and force a Georgia Southern timeout. However, the Eagles came out the stoppage with two kills and eventually put the final set away, 25-20.
College of Charleston will play Davidson at 5 p.m. on Saturday in the second match of the homestand.
Players Mentioned
