Cougars Open SoCon Volleyball Play At Elon
9/21/2012 2:17:00 PM | Volleyball
CofC is coming off a 3-1 win over local rival Charleston Southern on Tuesday night. The Cougars hit .301 for the match and had four different players record double-digits in kills, while Charleston Southern hit .274 for the match.
Junior Emily Neideffer tallied a season-high attack percentage of .714 with 10 kills on 14 attempts and no errors. That hitting mark ranks second in the Southern Conference this season for a single match, and fourth in school history.
Junior Darcy Dorton tallied her sixth double-double of the season as she made 21 kills and 12 digs, hitting a season-best .436 attack percentage.
Freshman Melissa Morello bested her season high with 13 kills, while Kerstin Koehler made 10 kills (.474) with four blocks. Senior Kelly Kolich hit a season-best .462 with seven kills and just one error. Emily Shelton continued her impressive number of digs with 26, averaging 6.2 per set, and Taeler Davis finished with 60 assists, just two from her career high.
FOLLOW LIVE
Live stats and live video will be available at ElonPhoenix.com. Fans can also follow along through CofC's twitter account, @cofcvolleyball.
SERIES RECORDS
College of Charleston owns a 13-1 record against Elon all-time, including two sweeps over the Phoenix last season. The Cougars defeated Elon 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the SoCon Tournament on Nov. 19, 2011.
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Elon lost a five-set match to UNCG on Thursday night to open SoCon play. Megan Gravley leads the Phoenix with 2.96 kills per set. The Phoenix are hitting .184 as a team and averaging 11.5 kills per set.
COUGARS RANKED 21ST IN NATION IN DIGS
College of Charleston ranked 21st among all D-I volleyball teams with 17.44 digs per set in the latest NCAA rankings. The Cougars trail SoCon team Georgia Southern who ranks first in the conference and 14th in the nation. Team leader Emily Shelton has 5.39 digs per set which puts her second in the conference.
SHELTON WINS SOCON DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
College of Charleston senior libero Emily Shelton was named the Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Shelton helped the Cougars to a 2-1 record over the weekend as she nearly tied her career high with 31 digs against Presbyterian and 21 digs apiece versus Georgetown and Michigan State. She finished with 73 digs for the weekend (5.62 per set), pacing the team and helping the Cougar defense limit opponents to a .233 hitting percentage.
Shelton is currently ranked second in the Southern Conference for digs with 5.39 per set.
She won the SoCon Defensive Player of the Month last September along with the week two defensive honor. CofC's Darcy Dorton won the SoCon Offensive Player of the Week after the first week this season.
DOWN 0-2? GO 3-0
College of Charleston became the first team in the SoCon this season to rally from an 0-2 deficit and eventually win, 3-2 (UNCG pulled off the feat later in the same night against UNC Wilmington). The Cougars lost the first two sets to Georgetown on Sept. 14, each by two points. However, the Cougars rallied to force a game five and won that set 15-13. It marked the first time since Sept. 2, 2011 against Harvard that CofC had won after trailing 2-0.
DARCY DORTON MAKING IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Penn State transfer Darcy Dorton has made her presence known over the first few weeks of the season. Dorton has posted seven double-digit kill performances and has reached 20 kills on four occasions. She has also posted six double-doubles as she has averaged 2.71 digs per set.
Dorton currently leads the Southern Conference with an average of 4.10 kills per set. Her 23 kills in a four-set win over Sacramento State rank third in the league for the most kills in one match this season.
Dorton became just the second player in the conference to post a 20-20 in kills and digs when she made 20 kills and 22 digs against Georgetown on Sept. 14.
WHITE PICKING UP WHERE SHE LEFT OFF
After a phenomenal freshman season that saw her lead the team in kills (374) and win the Rayna Taylor SoCon Freshman of the Year award, sophomore Sloane White has picked right up where she left off.
White earned Hampton Inn & Suites Invitational All-Tournament team honors in the first week and Courtyard Charleston Classic MVP honors in the second weekend after continuing to share in the kill totals with Dorton.
White currently ranks second on the team with 128 kills (2.84/set) and ranks 10th in the conference with a hitting percentage of .288.
SHELTON GUNNING FOR 2KD
College of Charleston's senior libero Emily Shelton will have a shot to be just the second player in school history to reach 2,000 digs for her career. Three weekends ago, her 48 kills helped her surpass CofC Volleyball Wall of Famers Stephanie Ballard and Claudia Fann. She currently sits second all-time with 1,754 career digs. This season, Shelton ranks second in the conference with 5.39 digs per set and 264 total digs.
1. 2,480 - Marie Dobrenz 2003-06
2. 1,754 - Emily Shelton 2008-P
3. 1,599 - Stephanie Ballard 1999-03
4. 1,590 - Claudia Fann 1991-94
MELISSA MORELLO SETS CAREER HIGHS AT HOME
Freshman Melissa Morello was named to the Holiday Inn Tournament All-Tournament team after recording three straight matches with double digits in kills, and two with 10 or more digs. Morello set a new career high with 12 kills against Presbyterian and 16 digs.
TAELER DAVIS MAKES THE MOST OF STARTING ROLE
With starting setter Kallie McKown sidelined with an injury, junior Taeler Davis stepped in and performed admirably in the starting role at the Holiday Inn Tournament against Georgetown, Presbyterian and Michigan State. Davis set a new career high with 62 assists and 13 digs against Georgetown, and followed that up with another double-double (42 assists-10 digs) versus Presbyterian. She was named to the Holiday Inn All-Tournament team.
Davis split the 2011 season as the starter or reserve with McKown.
NEIDEFFER BREAKS OUT IN KANSAS
Junior Emily Neideffer had a breakout weekend when the Cougars traveled to Kansas for the Jayhawk Classic. Neideffer set a new career high with 10 kills in the Friday morning match against Kansas. She then turned around and bested that with 14 kills in the night win over Wyoming.
She finished the weekend with 27 kills and a .415 hitting mark, earning her a spot on the Jayhawk Classic All-Tournament team.
KOEHLER PUTTING HER STAMP ON THE MIDDLE
Despite not playing in her first two seasons with CofC due to injury, redshirt-junior Kerstin Koehler has had to step into a leadership role in the middle blocker position in 2012. She currently leads the team with 46 blocks (0.96/set) while ranking fourth on the squad with 71 kills. Her average number of blocks currently ranks fourth in the Southern Conference.
She has already set new career highs in kills (12, Memphis) and blocks (7, UNF) this season and looks to continue to improve every weekend.
Players Mentioned
