CHARLESTON, S.C. – Senior Maddie Hills (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) paced four Cougars with double figures in kills, as the College of Charleston volleyball team fell to UNC Wilmington in five sets on Thursday evening in Colonial Athletic Association play.
 
"We have times where we play at a very high level, and put pressure on teams," said head coach Jason Kepner. "I think if the team can take charge of the floor a little bit more, and that's something we have to keep working on. We're still young out there, and we've got a lot of new pieces. I think we still have some really good volleyball in us, especially the way we started the match. They do a great job of staying aggressive [on the block] and reaching over the net, and we struggled to make the adjustment."
 
UNC Wilmington (13-6, 3-4 CAA) won the match by scores of 23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 21-25 and 15-8, as the two teams combined for 432 attack attempts and 220 digs. The Seahawks held College of Charleston (12-7, 5-2 CAA) to four service aces, eight blocks and a .142 hitting percentage, while posting 11 blocks and a .203 attacking clip of their own.
 
Hills paced the Cougars with 17 kills and six digs, while Devon Rachel (Louisville, Ky.) recorded her eighth straight double-double with 12 smashes and 23 digs. Jane Feddersen (Leesburg, Va.) and Kennedy Madison (Evansville, Ind.) each added 13 kills, as Allison Beckman (Apex, N.C.) turned in a double-double with 47 assists and 11 digs. McKala Rhodes (Charleston, S.C.) was credited for a match-high 35 digs, which ties her for fifth on the program's five-set single-match list.
 
Maddy Kline led the way for UNC Wilmington with a match-high 22 kills, and added 12 digs for a double-double. Kristin Powell and Nicole Lott each added 12 kills, while Lott chipped in 20 digs and four blocks. Sydney Alvis and Katie McCullough posted 30 and 16 digs, respectively, as Alyssa Desjardins turned in a double-double with 29 assists and 17 digs.
 
The Cougars survived a furious Seahawk rally in the opening frame to take the set, 25-23, after the Seahawks erased a 16-7 deficit with a 13-4 surge. Wilmington capped the run with a Desjardins kill before a smash by Kline gave the Seahawks their first lead of the night, 21-20. With the Seahawks leading 23-22, Rachel answered the call with back-to-back kills to force set point. A Wilmington miscue followed to hand the set to the Cougars.
 
The Seahawks responded in the second set with a 10-3 run to open the frame, which prompted an early timeout from the Cougars. Charleston would answer with a 6-1 spurt to close the gap to two, and cut the lead to 11-9 on a block by Feddersen and Freed. Four of the next six points fell for the Cougars to even the tally at 13-13, before the Seahawks strung together a 12-6 run to finish the set.
 
The third set proved to be perhaps the most competitive of the night, with Charleston opening an early 13-8 lead before five straight points from the Seahawks evened the tally at 13-13. The Seahawks kept pushing with a 7-4 spurt to take a 20-17 advantage, which was quickly erased by two Rachel kills and a Beckman block that knotted the score at 20-20. Wilmington would answer with five of the next seven points, and after Charleston fought off a pair of set points, capped the frame with a Brock smash to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Charleston battled throughout the fourth set after opening an early 13-9 lead on a smash from Feddersen. The Seahawks would slowly chip away with a 7-5 spurt to close the gap to 18-16, before an ace from Katie McCullough cut the margin to 19-18. The Cougars quickly countered with six of the next nine points to hold off the rally, and claim the fourth set, 25-21 on a powerful swing from Hills.
 
The Seahawks stormed out of the gate in the fifth set and never let up, as Wilmington scored eight of the frame's first 10 points to take an 8-2 lead and force Charleston to burn both its timeouts before the switch. Wilmington would hold on from there, closing out the set and the match on a block by Powell after the Cougars fought off three straight match points.
 
Charleston is back in action on Sunday when the Cougars travel to Elon, North Carolina to take on Elon in CAA play at 1:00 pm.