Friday, November 3, 2006
Presbyterian Falls In First Round Of Food Lion SAC
Tournament To
L-R To Conclude 2006 Season
WINGATE, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhyne College volleyball team advanced to the semifinals of the 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Volleyball Tournament by virtue of its 3-0 (30-23, 30-25, 31-29) first round victory over Presbyterian Friday afternoon on the campus of Wingate University.
With the loss, Presbyterian concludes its 2006 campaign with a 9-25 record.
The second-seeded Bears (24-12 overall) will now face third-seeded Catawba at 7 p.m. in Cuddy Arena. The Catawba Indians defeated the sixth-seeded Indians of Newberry 3-0 to advance to the semifinals.
The other semifinal match at 4 p.m. will feature the top-seeded Bulldogs of host Wingate and fifth-seeded Carson-Newman.
Lenoir-Rhyne jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first game that they never would relinquish en route to their 30-23 win. Bear sophomore outside hitter Abby Smith served four aces in L-Rís 8-1 run. The Bears’ only representative on the All-SAC First Team, Smith would go on to finish the match with six aces.
SAC All-Freshman selection Jordan Ledford notched five kills and the Bears hit .273 in game two to stake a 2-0 margin in the match.
The third and deciding game was heavily contested with seven tie scores and four lead changes. Presbyterian took charge as the Blue Hose posted a 5-1 margin, forcing L-R to call a timeout. The Bears responded with a 6-3 run to square the game at 8-8.
PC pushed onward and regained the lead at 13-8 as L-R called its second timeout. Three kills and a service ace from Smith helped the Bears forge ahead of the Blue Hose at 23-21. Presbyterian would play catch-up from this point on, finally tying the game at 29-29. Back-to-back Blue Hose attacking errors gave L-R the win.
The 2006 Co-SAC Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, senior Kathryn Phillips tallied 11 kills in the Bear win, hitting an impressive .579 for the match. Junior libero Catherine Fulton recorded 12 digs for the victors.
Freshman Julie Hollrah (Glenwood, Md.), a SAC All-Freshman Squad member, was the only Blue Hose to register double-digit kills with a game-high 12. Presbyterian junior Lauren Mason (Peachtree City, Ga.) had 10 digs.