STATESBORO, Ga. - College of Charleston celebrated a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-23, 25-22) on the road at Georgia Southern in a battle of the two unbeaten teams in the SoCon South Division.
The Cougars (10-5, 3-0) beat Georgia Southern (12-6, 3-1) in three sets at Hanner Fieldhouse for the first time since 2008 in a highly competitive series history. The sweep also marks the third-straight SoCon sweep for CofC, all coming on the road.
College of Charleston hit .279 and held the Eagles to .142 hitting, as the Cougars only made 14 errors and Georgia Southern made 27. CofC also notched eight team blocks to GSU's six.
"I was really impressed with how focused the team was," head coach Jason Kepner said. "We had a game plan and the team executed it well. We put ourselves in a great position to defend. We let them get points that we knew they were going to get, but worked on taking away a majority of their tendencies."
Melissa Morello and Darcy Dorton paced the Cougars with 12 kills apiece. Morello only made one error as she hit .500 for the match. Dorton's paired her 12 kills with 10 digs for her seventh double-double of the season.
Sloane White made 10 kills and three blocks and Emily Neideffer notched four blocks. Emily Shelton led the team with 11 digs, while Taeler Davis tallied 35 assists.
Georgia Southern was led by Moriah Bellissimo and her 11 kills against six errors. Three other Eagle players made eight kills and senior Kate Van Dyke tallied 36 assists and two kills.
College of Charleston and Georgia Southern were locked throughout the most of the first set. The Eagles built a 13-11 lead but CofC responded with a 6-1 run to build momentum and lead 17-14. Kills by White and Morello sandwiched a Neideffer solo block and the Cougars led 20-15. After falling behind 23-17, the Eagles rallied to make the set close at 24-22. However, College of Charleston came out of a timeout with a simple pass, set and kill from Dorton to win 25-22. Morello finished the set with a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage and seven kills.
After holding a slight lead early in the set, Georgia Southern raced out to a 19-14 advantage and threatened to put set two away. However, the Cougars rallied for a 9-2 run to take a 23-21 lead and force an Eagle timeout. Five different players tallied kills in the run as the Cougars completely shifted the momentum of the match. Georgia Southern scored the next two points to tie the set at 23, but a Dorton kill and a hitting error from Bellissimo gave the Cougars a 25-23 set victory.
The Eagles held a two or three point lead throughout most of the third set before the Cougars tied the final set at 19. A kill from White gave the Cougars a one-point advantage and an attack error from Meredith Paskert followed by a block from Kerstin Koehler and White and kill from Dorton put CofC ahead, 23-20. Georgia Southern pulled as close as 24-22, but Morello ended the match with an emphatic solo block to win 25-22.
College of Charleston continues the road trip tomorrow at Davidson with a 2 p.m. match.
