September 9, 2014
Apps Sweep Blue Hose for Eighth-Straight Win
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University volleyball swept Presbyterian on Tuesday night to notch its eighth-straight win, recording three sets with scores of 25-20, 25-26 and 25-23.
The Mountaineers (8-0) defeated the Blue Hose (3-5) to remain undefeated and continue the best start to a season in Appalachian volleyball history.
The first set started close as the lead changed fives times, but the Mountaineers quickly found their groove, pulling ahead 15-9. Appalachian kept its distance until a kill from Presbyterian pulled them within five points for a 20-15 score.
The Mountaineers found a kill from Lauren Gray but the Blue Hose would score four-straight to make the score 21-19. The Apps scored four of the last five points to take the first set 25-20.
Presbyterian would score the first two points to start the second set but Appalachian took control, finding five-straight points to take a 5-2 lead. A Blue Hose timeout would help Presbyterian regain composure as they managed to score nine of the next 12 points to lead Appalachian 10-9.
The score would be tied five times before the Mountaineers began to dominate, finding four kills from Emily Corrigan to help the Apps go on a 9-1 run and take a 23-15 lead. Appalachian recorded kills from Sloan Evans and Jess Keller to close out the second set, 25-16.
The Mountaineers immediately took control of the third set, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. The Apps continued to find points, leading the Blue Hose 12-4.
It looked as though the Mountaineers would easily take the third set as they found five-straight points, primarily off Presbyterian errors, but the Blue Hose would get hot. Presbyterian scored seven-straight points, six of which were Appalachian attack errors, to trail by only two points with a score of 20-18.
Presbyterian pulled within one point, making the score 24-23, but Appalachian was able to maintain the lead, taking the third set 25-23 and winning the match 3-0.
The Mountaineers were led by Corrigan's 25 kills as she committed only five errors for a .364 hitting percentage. Keller followed with nine kills of her own.
Paige Brown tallied 41 kills, while Meghan Mahoney had a season-high of 21 digs in the win.
Presbyterian's Rachel Hall had eight kills and Mary Trimpe found 18 digs to lead the team.
App State hit .223 on the night, whle holding the Blue Hose to just a .090 hitting percentage. The Apps recorded five blocks, while Presbyterian had three.
The Mountaineers return to action when they host the Black and Gold Challenge this weekend, beginning with their first Sun Belt match of the season against Georgia State on Friday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.
Texas State Beats Prairie View A&M, 3-1
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State dropped a set to Prairie View A&M Tuesday night but rebounded to win the third and fourth sets for a 3-1 victory (25-19, 27-25, 25-17, 25-21).
Shelby Vas Matt led the Bobcats in the match with 19 kills and added another double-double to her season stats with 14 digs. Brooke Smith was second on the team with 10 kills and added a team-high six blocks. Setters Ali Gonzales and Jordan Moore combined for 55 assists with Gonzales finishing with 39.
Sophomore defensive specialist Brenna Lyles saw her first time as a libero for the Bobcats and cleaned up with 18 digs. In service Kelsey Weynand was unstoppable with four service aces, at one point serving seven straight points in the third set. Sierra Smith added two aces.
The Bobcats survived the first set, 25-19, but the Panthers were able to outlast Texas State in extra points in the second. After taking the loss in the second, the Bobcats bounced back with a dominating performance in the third set, building up a 20-9 lead before allowing Prairie View A&M to begin to whittle down the lead. After the win in the third, the Bobcats were able to close it out with a 25-21 victory in the final set.
Texas State travels to Lubbock next for the Texas Tech Invitational. The Bobcats will start the weekend with a 10 a.m. match against Incarnate Word on Friday followed by Texas Tech at 6 p.m. Gardner-Webb will be Sunday’s opponent at 10 a.m. Sunday before the Bobcats return to start Sun Belt action against UT Arlington at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Troy Volleyball Sweeps Alabama State on the Road
MONTGOMERY, Alabama – The Troy volleyball team traveled to Lockhart Gym and came away with a sweep of Alabama State, 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-19), on Tuesday night. The win was the fifth straight for the Trojans.
Troy (8-1) now has the best start in the program’s Division I history (1993-present). The Trojans are also now 28-0 all-time against Alabama State, including an 11-0 mark in Montgomery.
“We battled through the match to make history at 8-1 for the first time as a Division I program,” Troy head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick said. “I don’t think that it’s set in to our players yet that they’re making history every time they go out and win. We look forward to getting out on the floor on Friday against Auburn and seeing how we keep progressing.”
The Trojans hit .333 in the match, their fourth match of nine this season over .300. Troy posted a match-high .433 percentage in the first set to set the tone for the match. Blair Winston had a match-high 12 kills while Marija Zelenovic had 11 and Kiah Cheatham had nine.
Winston hit .455 with just two errors on 22 swings while Cheatham hit a team-best .615 with just one error on 13 swings.
Tineille Waggoner posted 33 assists for the Trojans who had just 11 errors in the whole match.
Troy used late runs in the first and second sets to take control. The Trojans turned a 15-16 deficit into a 22-18 lead in a hurry in the first set before winning 25-20. The second set was tied 15-15 before the Trojans scored seven straight to take control of a set that finished 25-19. Troy held Alabama State (2-6) to a -.034 attack percentage in the second frame.
The Hornets led early in the third set, forcing a Troy timeout. However, the Trojans scored four straight after going down 9-11 to take a 13-11 lead the Trojans would never give up.
Alabama State was led by Amber Bennett and Myla Marshall who combined for 15 of ASU’s 34 kills. The two hit a combined .636 despite the Lady Hornets hitting .144 in the match as a team.
The Trojans return to the court this weekend when they travel to Auburn for three matches at the Active Ankle Challenge. Troy will take on Auburn at 7 p.m. on Friday before taking on South Florida and Winthrop on Saturday. Those three will be the Trojans final non-conference matches of the season as they open Sun Belt play at home next Wednesday against Georgia Southern.
For more information on the Trojans, visit TroyTrojans.com. Fans can also find Troy on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube by searching for Troy Athletics.
UTA falls in four sets to Baylor
ARLINGTON, Texas - Freshman Qiana Canete enjoyed a superb performance on Tuesday night, but UT Arlington fell in a hard-fought battle to Baylor in front of 893 fans, the largest volleyball crowd in College Park Center history. The Copperas Cove native recorded a match-high 19 kills to go along with 11 digs in her 4th double-double of the season as the Mavericks fell in four sets (26-24, 25-23, 21-25, 25-16).
The loss drops the Mavericks to 7-2 on the year while Baylor improves to 5-2 this season.
"When you look at the stats you see that we were right there," UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour said. "We blocked more balls than Baylor, dug about the same and had the same number of hitting errors, but they just had that extra push tonight."
It was the slimmest of margins in the opening set as the two teams stayed neck and neck with each other from start to finish. The Mavericks jumped out to an early lead when they went up 7-3 after a Taylor Gross kill. Then after the Bears tied the game back up at seven, UTA scored three straight points which were capped off by a Stacey Koch and Briana Sharratt block. The set stayed close as the largest lead over the last half came when Baylor committed an attack error to put the Mavs up 20-17. Then after holding a 23-22 lead, UTA ended the set on the wrong end of a 4-1 run that gave Baylor the opening set by a score of 26-24.
A trio of Mavericks led the team through the first set as Canete led all players with six kills while Stacey Koch and Taylor Gross each chipped in four kills. Amanda Welsh helped direct the UTA offense as she recorded 10 assists in the first set.
The Mavericks once again stormed out to an early lead in the second set as an ace by Taylor Story put UTA up 7-1. Baylor then used a timeout to help it regroup as it scored four straight points out of the break to close the lead down to two points. UTA carried that lead until the 23rd point when a Baylor kill granted the Bears their first lead of the set. Baylor came out on top in the second set 25-23.
Canete continued her impressive play in the second set as she recorded a team-high six kills on 13 attacks with a hitting percentage of .385. Hannah Baptiste also got in the action as she recorded five kills on seven attacks with a hitting percentage of .429.
Staving off the sweep, UTA responded in the third set as it came out on top 25-21. After a block by Koch andAshley Bennett capped off a Maverick 9-2 run, UTA nearly gave away the lead as Baylor pulled within one-point of the Mavs at 22-21. The Mavericks then responded to the Bears run by rattling off three straight points of their own to finish the set.
Koch helped propel UTA to victory in the third set as she notched five kills in five attacks with a perfect hitting percentage. Koch ended the night with 10 kills and a hitting percentage of .471. Caitlyn Cooney also did her part defensively for the Mavericks, recording ten of her 21 digs in the third set.
UTA got out to a slow start in the 4th set as the Bears jumped out to a 7-2 lead. Later in the set Story recorded one of her match-high four aces to finish off a run of four straight points for the Mavericks who cut down Baylor's lead to three points at 11-8. However the Bears answered back with a 13-6 run that put Baylor up 24-14. UTA responded with back to back points to make the score 24-16, but it was too little too late as the Bears clinched the final set 25-16 and the match 3-1.
Canete led the Mavs in the 4th set as she recorded three kills and three digs.
UTA will return to action this weekend when it hosts the Hilton Maverick Invitational. The Mavs will open up the invitational when they take on Texas Southern at College Park Center with the match set to begin at 1:30 p.m.