Appalachian State Sweeps ULM
LinksMONROE, LA. – Appalachian State volleyball sweeps UL Monroe Warhawks in three sets on Saturday, Oct. 21 (25-18, 28-26, 25-22).
The Mountaineers dominate the Warhawks for their third Sun Belt win of the season. Now the Mountaineers are 8-16 overall and 3-7 in the Sun Belt Conference. A 5-0 run early in the first set put App State ahead 10-4 to secure the lead for the remainder of the set.
In the second set the Warhawks made it a tough competition, but App State pulled it out in the end with a 28-26 finish. The third set sealed the overall victory for the Mountaineers with a late 4-0 run with the help of two kills from Melissa McMath.
Melissa McMath had an impressive performance with 17 points and 15 kills followed by 13.5 on the day for Grace Morrison. Courtney Sullivan and Cassidy Stephenson each had 9.5 points. Ashlyn Brown had 47 assists, which was twice as many as the UL Monroe leader in sets during tonight's match.
Appalachian State will continue their season on Friday, Oct. 27 in Boone, N.C. at 6:30 p.m. On Sunday, Oct. 29 at 12:30 p.m., the Mountaineers will play Troy at the Holmes Center.
Moore and Page Power Trojans Past Little Rock
TROY, Alabama – Huge performances from sophomores Savannah Moore and Logan Page led Troy (9-16, 3-7 SBC) over Little Rock (7-16, 3-8 SBC) on Saturday at the Trojan Arena.
Troy started the match off hot with a 25-20 set one win posting a .375 hitting percentage and holding Little Rock to just a .139 percentage. The set was tied at 12-12, but Troy took the momentum with a four-point run and didn't look back as it clinched the 1-0 match lead on an attack error from Little Rock.
Both teams rallied back and forth in the second set, and Little Rock pulled away with a 12-9 lead and forced the Trojans to call timeout. Troy powered its way back with another four-point run and a kill from Cheyenne Hayes capped the set at 25-22 to give the Trojans a 2-0 match lead.
Little Rock refused to go down easy as the bounced back from an early 5-0 deficit. The Trojans put up one more kill than Little Rock and both teams had the same number of total attacks and errors, but the front line overcame Troy with timely blocks to take the 27-25 win to force a fourth set.
The Trojans posted a match-high .387 attack percentage in the fourth set solidifying the win as they took a 24-19 lead after a four-point run. A kill from page capped the match as the Trojans picked up their third conference win of the season.
Page and Moore both posted 13 kills for the Trojans and Moore finished with a monstrous career and season-high .750 hitting percentage. Page led the team with 17.5 points on the night.
NOTEWORTHY
Bethany Cullity earned her second double-double with 12 kills and 18 digs and Kiara Barrett recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 33 assists and 11 digs.
Troy led Little Rock in points (78-68), kills (65-56), aces (4-1), assists (60-45) and digs (63-48)
Troy improves to 6-4 in Trojan Arena this season.
UP NEXT
Troy will be back on the road as it travels to Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State to continue conference play. The Trojans will face the Chanticleers on Friday, Oct. 27 at 5:30 and will take on the Mountaineers on Sunday at 11:30.
Mavs Power Past Georgia Southern
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Qiana Canete and Kylie Jedlicka each registered double-doubles to help lead UTA volleyball to a four-set win (25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-21) over Georgia Southern, on Saturday night at College Park Center in UTA's annual Dig Pink Match, presented by eSix Sportswear.
UTA (10-12, 4-5 Sun Belt Conference) earned its second straight win of the weekend, besting Georgia Southern (7-15, 3-7 Sun Belt) in four sets, a night after topping Georgia State in four sets. The Mavs were paced in the win by a season-high 10 blocks, totaling a .292 hitting percentage as a team, while holding Georgia Southern to a .214 attack percentage.
LEADING THE MAVS
A native of Copperas Cove, Texas, Canete had 17 kills and 10 digs, adding a block. She now has 1,378 kills in her career to rank second in program history, also ranking fourth in UTA career history in digs (1,518). Canete is now just 38 kills shy of equaling the program record. She owns 14 double-doubles on the year and a staggering 63 in her career.
Jedlicka added her third double-double of the year with 12 kills and 12 digs, with Zhanelle Geathers adding 16 kills on 32 swings. Freshman Tessa Harfield set new career highs in kills (eight) and blocks (five), with sophomore Madison McConnell adding eight kills, four digs and five blocks. Sophomore Haley Higgins had a match-high 31 assists, with setter Madison Helt adding 21 assists and four digs. Libero Libbie Vickers charted a team-leading 14 digs.
NEXT
The Mavs return to action with its final two-match road swing of the year, traveling to face Louisiana on Friday and ULM on Saturday.
SET ONE
Harfield and Canete notched kills to open the match and give UTA a 2-0 lead. Jedlicka went on a 2-0 run with a pair of kills as UTA stretch its lead to 5-3. After a kill from Jedlicka and a block from Allie Deese and McConnell UTA built a 7-4 lead. Owning a 13-11 lead, UTA was able to take four of the next five points to earn an 18-12 lead, getting a block from Jedlicka and McConnell to highlight the scoring. UTA went on a late 4-0 run to take a 24-15 lead, finishing off the win at 25-18. UTA hit .323 in the first set, collecting four blocks.
SET TWO
After Geathers got the Mavs on the board with the first point, UTA got kills from Harfield and McConnell to take a 3-1 lead. GS ripped off a 5-0 run to take a three-point lead, its first of three three-point leads in the set. Back-to-back points from Jedlicka and McConnell got it to one point and UTA took its second lead of the set with a 3-0 run on three straight kills from Canete. The Mavs took a 10-9 lead before GS went on a 3-0 run to take a 12-10 lead. UTA fought back behind a block from Jedlicka and Harfield to cut the lead to 14-13. Georgia Southern took a 18-15 lead and forced a 4-0 run from the Mavs with Jedlicka adding a kill and UTA evening up the set with a long rally at 18-18 and taking a lead at 19-18. After Georgia Southern fought back to take a 21-20 lead, UTA ripped off three straight to earn a 23-21 lead and force an Eagles timeout. UTA then traded points with Geathers finishing off the win with a kill, her sixth.
SET THREE
The teams traded points early with Jedlicka getting UTA its second lead of the match with a kill at 3-2. The match was tied at nine when GS went on a 3-0 run and later built its lead to 16-12 and 19-13. UTA fought back with a 4-0 run to cut it to two but GS was able to hold off the late rally for a 25-22 win.
SET FOUR
The teams traded points to open the scoring before UTA went on a 3-0 run to take a 4-2 lead, with GS answering to tie the set at 4-4 and went on a 2-0 run to take a 9-7 lead, stretching its lead to 10-8. A 4-0 UTA run, keyed by Jedlicka and service from Higgins, helped UTA take a 12-10 lead, its first lead since 4-3. The set was evened at 14-14 when UTA ripped off a 3-0 stretch and forced a timeout from GS with a 23-19 lead. After dropping the next two points, UTA went on a 2-0 run to finish off the win.
Coastal Keeps Rolling at Louisiana
LAFAYETTE, La. - It took five sets, but the Coastal Carolina volleyball team stretched its winning streak to six matches Saturday night with a 3-2 victory (25-22, 17-25, 25-16, 22-25, 15-12) at Louisiana.
This latest win in the streak improves Coastal to 12-7 overall with nine wins in ten conference matches. The Ragin' Cajuns drop to 15-9 overall, and suffer just their second loss in league play with an 8-2 mark.
Outside hitter Leah Hardeman continued her torrid pace as of late, notching her fourth 20-plus kill performance in her last five outings by landing 22 swings to lead the match. The senior hit at a .250 percentage and tallied 10 digs for her 14th double-double of the season.
Kyla Manning and Sara Boothe also had double-doubles of their own, the former totaling 14 kills and 13 digs while the latter compiled 31 assists and 14 digs.
The Chants totaled 81 digs and 10 blocks as a team to limit Louisiana to hitting .210, while swinging at a .247 pace themselves.
Coastal began the match hitting .302 in the opening set while receiving a combined 10 kills from Hardeman and Manning. An 8-3 CCU run gave the Chants a 23-17 advantage in the frame, though Louisiana won five of the next six points to make the set appear closer than it was.
Coastal's hitting dropped below .100 for the only time all match in the second period, allowing the Rajun' Cajuns to cruise a 25-17 set win. Louisiana finished the set on a 7-2 run.
The third set featured six ties and five lead changes, though all occurred early in the game as a run of four straight points broke a 6-6 deadlock and put Coastal in front for good. Hardeman turned in her second six-kill set of the match to lead the Chants.
The Chants appeared ready to finish the match in the fourth set after leading 21-17, but Louisiana stormed back with seven straight points and finished the period on an impressive 8-1 run.
Louisiana held a 7-5 lead in the deciding set before Coastal rattled off five straight points to swing momentum and go ahead by three. The Rajun' Cajuns continued to keep the set close, however, at one point trimming the margin to a single point, 13-12. Kinga Windisch forced match point with a well-timed kill, and a Louisiana error ended the match in favor of the Chants.
Coastal returns to the HTC Center next weekend for its final two home matches of the season. The Chants take on Troy on Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m., and host South Alabama on Oct. 29 at 12:30 p.m. for senior day.
Texas State dispatches Panthers Saturday
SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team collected a decisive 3-0 (25-10, 25-17, 25-8) victory over Georgia State Saturday night inside Strahan Coliseum.
In a match that took just one hour, two minutes, the Bobcats (17-7, 8-1 SBC) were able to record their ninth-consecutive triumph. TXST has also shutout each of its last eight Sun Belt Conference adversaries, which is the longest such streak since the maroon and gold set the school record of nine-straight league sweeps in 2000.
Texas State was led, in part, by the middle-blocking duo of senior Jaliyah Bolden and junior Madison Daigle. Bolden erupted for 10 kills and just one error on 16 swings for a career-high .562 attack percentage. Daigle pummeled the stat sheet with 11 kills on a .368 hitting percentage to go along with three digs, two assists, one solo block and a career-high four service aces.
Senior Erin Hoppe steered the offensive onslaught with 34 assists, while adding five digs, three kills and no errors of her own (.750). Sophomores Micah Dinwiddie (17) and Amy Pflughaupt (10) both tallied double-digit digs, and true freshman Tyeranee Scott tied her career high with eight kills, while hitting .538 and adding five blocks.
Texas State never faced much push back on the night, as the lone lead for the Panthers came at 2-1 in the third set. The maroon and gold went on top 8-3 in the first game and was able to increase the advantage to 18-6 before closing out the period 25-10.
The early lead in the second frame sat at 12-5 before the Bobcats were able to pull away at 23-13. GSU went on a mini 4-2 run to close out the set at 25-17 in favor of the home team.
Despite earning its lone lead of the match at 2-1, Georgia State had no answer for Texas State in the third as the Bobcats ran away with the final frame 25-8. The last time the Panthers were held to single digits in a set came on Oct. 23, 2015, when they fell 25-9 in the second set against UTA. This also marked the first time this season that TXST held an opponent to single digits for an entire set.
Georgia State (8-15, 2-8 SBC) rotated three different setters in the match, with Sarah Renner finishing with a team-high 10 assists. No Panther tallied more than four kills or five digs. Libero Celeste Friesen entered the match second in the Sun Belt at 5.01 digs per set, but she finished with a career-low five. She had posted double-digit digs in each of her last 13 outings and had at least nine digs in every match this season.
Texas State dominated the match in every statistical category, including kills (45-16), attack percentage (.388-(-).022), assists (40-16), aces (8-1), digs (49-25), and blocks (6-5).
Georgia State came into the match leading the Sun Belt with 130 aces before finishing with just one against TXST. Also, the last time a Texas State opponent finished with 16 kills or fewer came on Sept. 4, 2015, when Prairie View A&M finished with 13. The match marked the second time in 2017 that the Bobcats were able to hold an opponent to a negative hitting percentage. UMass Lowell hit -.073 on Sept. 9.
Texas State is now set to venture to Louisiana for its next two matches. TXST will first meet ULM at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in Monroe, Louisiana, before heading into the fortress known as Earl K. Long Gym. The maroon and gold will take on powerhouse Louisiana at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Ragin' Cajuns have won eight of their last nine at home and entered Saturday night's action leading the SBC West Division.
TEXAS STATE COACH KAREN CHISUM
Opening Statement…
"I liked how we responded tonight after how poorly we played yesterday. We were very pleased. The team got on a roll. They were very focused, and we just took care of business tonight. We never gave Georgia State a chance to be in the match."
On Madison Daigle's energy levels…
"She brings (high energy) every match. I am extremely proud of her. She has improved so much since last year. She's playing at an all-conference level right now. But we have five hitters at any given time we can go to. Jaliyah Bolden had a great match tonight. Erin (Hoppe) and Jaliyah are our two seniors, and you can see they've got something going. Erin knows to set Jaliyah when things are going right with her. (Jaliyah) needed that confidence boost tonight because she struggled a little bit last night (against Georgia Southern). It was nice to see her back in the match contributing."
On the reunion of the 2007 Southland Conference Championship team...
"I can't believe it's been 10 years. I'm in coaching because of these players and the personal relationships that we create. We stay in touch with all of our former players. They have such a good time when they're able to come back and get together like this. Some of them are married now. Some have fiancés and children, so this was a girl's weekend for them. They have great memories from their time at Texas State. That means everything in the world to me."
On next weekend's road trip to ULM and powerhouse Louisiana…
"After how we played last night, I was getting worried that we might have peaked too early and we were going on a downslide. I don't have to worry about that anymore. The production we had tonight was tremendous. Our confidence is back up high again. We're going to have two really good days of practice, and then we will travel to Louisiana on Wednesday. We'll play ULM on Thursday. That will be our main focus for the next few days. We won't look ahead to Saturday, but I'm ready to meet the Ragin' Cajuns."