CHARLESTON, S.C. – The College of Charleston volleyball team (6-3) extended its win streak to four-straight matches with 3-1 victories over VCU, Charleston Southern and Eastern Michigan to claim the Hampton Inn Charleston/West Ashley CofC Classic championship trophy on Saturday night at TD Arena.
Freshman outside hitter Lauren Freed (Troy, Ohio) was named tournament MVP with back-to-back-to-back double-doubles against the Rams (20 kills, 11 digs), Buccaneers (18 kills, 20 digs) and Eagles (19 kills, 12 digs). She was joined on the all-tournament team by sophomore middle blocker Kennedy Madison (Evansville, Ind.) and sophomore setter Allison Beckman (Apex, N.C.).
Match #1: College of Charleston 3, Charleston Southern 1
The Cougars rebounded after Charleston Southern (3-7) took the first set in a well-fought match between the two intracity rivals, 22-25, 25-17, 25-13, 25-22.
Junior middle blocker Jane Feddersen (Leesburg, Va.) hit a team-best .571 with five kills on seven attempts against the Bucs and defensively added a team-high five blocks with one solo at the net. Feddersen, a transfer from VCU, has now led the Cougars in blocks in the last four matches.
Freed notched 18 kills with a season-high 20 digs, while Madison recorded 18 kills on 32 attempts (.469) and freshman outside hitter Maddie LeGrande (Champaign, Ill.) had 13 kills on 33 attempts (.333) with two blocks.
Match #2: College of Charleston 3, Eastern Michigan 1
The Cougars used a balanced attack to hold off the Eagles (4-6) in four sets, 25-11, 22-25, 25-17, 25-15. Freed was joined in the double-double club by Beckman, who made 51 assists and 11 digs.
CofC hit a season-best .329 for the match with 60 kills on 140 attempts with a 68 percent sideout percentage. Leading the way was senior middle blocker Maddie Hills (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), who made a season-high 16 kills on 32 attempts for a team-best .438 hitting percentage versus EMU. Freed had 16 kills (.366) and Madison 11 (.269).
Coach Kepner Thoughts: "I thought we played very well this weekend. We have been very error prone in our past weekends and that was one thing we did a great job of – minimizing the errors that we have complete control over. We hit for a much higher percentage the entire weekend. Allie (Beckman) did a great job of getting everyone involved, especially in our last match against Eastern Michigan. We got our middles a little more involved with Jane (Feddersen) and Maddie (Hills) getting more attempts, especially for Maddie in transition which opened up everything for us. Tonight was a very balanced attack. That is what is going to make us most successful. We don't have just one person that we can set the ball to 50-to-60 times and rely on them. We have to be able to distribute the ball from pin-to-pin and get everyone involved to be successful."
CofC Classic All-Tournament Team: Freed (MVP), Madison and Beckman were joined on the Hampton Inn Charleston/West Ashley CofC Classic All-Tournament Team by Devon Murray of Eastern Michigan, Kelly Ferguson of Eastern Michigan, Rebekah Strange of VCU and Madison Martin of Charleston Southern.
On The Road Again: The Cougars will hit the road again for the Baylor Classic hosted by Baylor on Sept. 16-17 in Waco, Texas. They will face three schools from the Power 5 including Washington State out of the Pac-12 Conference on Friday, Sept. 16 at 5 p.m. (ET) and host Baylor out of the Big 12 Conference on Saturday, Sept. 17 at noon (ET) and Virginia out of the ACC at 6 p.m. (ET).
