HARRISONBURG, VA. – Rianna Brennan (Los Gatos, Calif.) led all hitters with 16 kills, and Devon Rachel (Louisville, Ky.) recorded her seventh straight double-double, as the College of Charleston volleyball team won the final three sets Sunday afternoon to rally for a pivotal 3-1 Colonial Athletic Association win over James Madison.
 
"It has been a long weekend with a lot of distractions," said head coach Jason Kepner. "After a tough loss on Friday, I was very proud of the focus the team had today. The girls followed the game plan, executed, and played together today against a really good JMU team."
 
With the win, the College of Charleston (12-6, 5-1 CAA) moves into a tie for first place in the CAA standings alongside Northeastern (15-5, 5-1 CAA). The loss drops James Madison to 11-8 overall and 3-3 in conference play. Charleston won the match by scores of 24-26, 25-23, 25-18 and 25-19.
 
The Cougars totaled 60 kills, 64 digs and hit .236 in the match – including a .412 clip in the third set as CofC posted 15 kills and one error on 34 swings in the third stanza. Charleston held James Madison to 56 kills, 70 digs and a .213 clip on the attack, as the Dukes tallied 11 blocks compared to eight for the Cougars.
 
Jane Feddersen (Leesburg, Va.) paced the Cougar attack with an efficient afternoon, totaling 12 kills on 24 attempts without an error. Brennan turned in a team-high 16 kills to go along with 15 digs, while Rachel recorded her seventh straight double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs.
 
Maddie Hills (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) added 13 kills and a .313 hitting percentage. Allison Beckman (Apex, N.C.) dished out 49 assists to go along with nine digs, three blocks and one kill; McKala Rhodes (Charleston, S.C.) posted a team-high 17 digs while Feddersen tallied five blocks.
 
Janey Goodman and Kate Whitmire led the way for James Madison with 14 and 13 kills, respectively, while Briley Brind-Amour added 11 smashes. Taylor Austin paced the defense with a match-high 23 digs as Taylor Gail totaled a contest-best seven blocks. Tilbe Yaglioglu and Sarah Martin dished out 25 and 24 assists, respectively, while Goodman posted six blocks.
 
The Cougars seized control early the first set with four straight points to force a JMU timeout, and open a 10-5 lead on a tandem block by Beckman and Hills. With the Cougars leading 16-11 later in the frame, James Madison began to settle in with a 9-2 spurt that gave the Dukes a 20-19 advantage, and prompted a Charleston timeout.
 
After the Cougars answered with three of the next five points, James Madison countered with a 5-1 run to reclaim the momentum and take the first set, 26-24, on back-to-back blocks by Goodman and Gail.
 
The two teams would battle throughout the second set, with neither side opening more than a three-point advantage at any point during the frame. With James Madison leading 14-11 midway through the frame, Charleston strung together an 8-3 spurt to retake the lead, 19-17, following back-to-back smashes from Brennan and Kennedy Madison (Evansville, Ind.).
 
James Madison quickly countered with four straight points before a Brennan smash launched the Cougars on a 6-2 spurt, which handed Charleston a 25-23 second-set win and evened the match at 1-1.
The Cougars carried the momentum into the third, and opened the frame with a 7-3 spurt that prompted an early James Madison timeout. A 9-5 Cougar run would push the advantage to 16-8 on a Brennan ace, and Charleston kept the Dukes at arm's length for the remainder of the frame en route to a 25-18 third set win.
 
The Dukes fought back with a 7-3 run to open the fourth set, and prompting an early Charleston timeout on a smash from M'Kaela White. The Cougars would chip away at the lead over the next several minutes, answering a Brind'Amour kill with a 6-1 spurt to even the tally at 13-13 following a smash from Madison.
 
James Madison countered with a pair of points before Charleston responded with a 9-2 surge to snatch the momentum back, and take a 22-17 lead after Feddersen combined with Beckman and Brennan for back-to-back stuff blocks. The Cougars would close out the win from there, with three straight kills from Brennan and Madison to cap the 25-19 fourth-set win.
 
Charleston is scheduled to host UNC Wilmington on Thursday evening at 7 pm in TD Arena.