Saturday, October 28, 2006
Three 15-Kill
Performances Leads Lenoir-Rhyne to 3-1 Victory
over
Blue Hose
CLINTON, S.C. – The Lenoir-Rhyne College volleyball squad used three 15-kill performances to record a 3-1 (23-30, 30-25, 30-24, 30-28) win over Presbyterian College for its 12th South Atlantic Conference victory of the season Saturday afternoon.
Being down 7-5 to start the first game, the Blue Hose put together a 13-5 run to lead 18-12 following a kill by junior Courtney VanDusen (Peoria, Ill.). Presbyterian (9-24, 2-12 SAC) continued to increase its margin, boasting a 28-16 advantage over the conference’s second-place team before the Bears closed the gap to 29-23. A VanDusen kill ended game one and gave the Blue Hose a 1-0 lead in the match.
Lenoir-Rhyne (22-12, 12-2 SAC) rallied back for the next three games to claim today’s 3-1 victory but the wins were not easy. The second and fourth games featured a total of 26 tie scores and 16 lead changes.
In the second game, the Bears never had a safe lead as Presbyterian was continually nipping at their heels. Lenoir-Rhyne finally pulled away after a 22-22 tie and used an 8-2 run to equalize the match at 1-1. The Bears hit .298 for the game on 18 kills and four errors in 47 attempts.
With Lenoir-Rhyne leading 10-6, Presbyterian used two Bear errors and a kill each from senior Danielle Gill (Kings Mountain, N.C.) and junior Lauren Mason (Peachtree City, Ga.) to knot the game at 10-10. After a timeout, L-R regained its lead at 12-11 and never looked back as freshman Jordan Ledford (Newton, N.C.) had five kills in the win.
The fourth and deciding game was heavily contested, as neither team took full control until the final six points of the game. Down 24-22, the Blue Hose went 5-0, including two kills from Gill, to sport a 27-24 lead. A kill and ace by Ledford pulled Lenoir-Rhyne within one (27-26) but a Gill kill put PC up by two again (28-26). Two kills from freshman Kassi Henry (Denver, N.C.) in a 4-0 Bear run sealed the game for L-R.
Playing in her final regular-season match of her career, Gill registered a double-double on 13 kills and 10 digs. Freshman Julie Hollrah (Glenwood, Md.) led the PC offensively with 14 kills, while sophomore Justine Lanchester (Downs, Ill.) also had 13 kills for the Blue Hose. Mason finished the match with 12 kills and 17 digs.
Senior Kathryn Phillips (Lexington, N.C.), sophomore Abby Smith (Virginia Beach, Va.), and Ledford all notched 15 kills, while Ledford also picked up 15 digs. Junior Lauren McLelland (Statesville, N.C.) was stellar for the Bears with 55 assists on 64 total L-R kills.
Presbyterian will be idle until the 2006 Food Lion SAC Tournament on the campus of Wingate University in Wingate, N.C. on Nov. 3-4. Lenoir-Rhyne will play its final regular-season match of 2006 on Halloween as the Bears play host to Montreat College at 7 p.m.