Monday, November 05, 2007

Belmont

The Bruins locked up the top seed in next week's conference tournament, marking the second consecutive season Belmont has received a bye through the first round of competition..

Campbell

The Fighting Camels wrapped up their home schedule last weekend, as Atlantic Sun powers Lipscomb and Belmont came into Buies Creek. Campbell, dropping both matches, now stands 9-19 overall, and finishes league play with a 2-9 mark.

Two matches remain for the Camels, as the squad travels to North Carolina A&T on Tuesday, followed by Winston-Salem State on Thursday. CU has faced both teams already this season, earning wins in straight sets.

ETSU

The Lady Bucs defeated Kennesaw State and Mercer over the weekend, wrapping up the second seed in next week's conference tournament. It is the second consecutive year ETSU has secured a first-round bye.

Florida Gulf Coast

The Eagles defeated Jacksonville Saturday, claiming the Atlantic Sun regular season title in their first season as a Division I member.

Gardner-Webb

The Gardner-Webb volleyball team earned its second consecutive berth in the A-Sun Tournament after knocking off Lipscomb 3-0 on Saturday. The win vaulted the Bulldogs past Stetson for the final spot in the tournament. Ashley Pridgeon had a team-best 15 kills while defensively, Carrie Long had nine block assists to lead the way.

GWU takes on Winthrop on Tuesday, Nov. 6 in its final regular season match.

Jacksonville

The Dolphins will compete in one non-conference match against cross-town rival North Florida on Nov. 8 before heading in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed…sophomore libero Michelle Walroth, who set the program record for digs in a season with 571 last season, has broken her own record as a sophomore with 585 digs…JU tallied a program-record 19 service aces in a three-game match against Savannah State…senior defensive specialist Katie O'Brien set a career-high 12 assists against Savannah State…freshman middle blocker Abby Gruenbacher tied a season high with 12 kills against Florida Gulf Coast…junior outside hitter Sara Bendorf and freshman outside hitter Brittany Lehman did not play against Florida Gulf Coast due to injury and will look to return to action in the A-Sun Tournament.

Kennesaw State

The Owls closed their season with a pair of losses over the weekend, being swept by ETSU and USC Upstate.

Lipscomb

Senior middle blocker Alex Scruggs shattered the 1,000 kills mark for her career.

The Lady Bisons have won 16 games overall during the regular season, an all-time high. They also finished over .500 for the regular season for the first time.

The Lady Bisons close out three regular season Tuesday night with a visit from Austin Peay at Allen Arena.

Mercer

It was a historic week for the Bears as three players made their marks in the record books. Setter Kelly Jansen became Mercer's all-time assists leader as she dished out 165 assists over the week to take her career total to 2,653. She passed Molly Gabri (2001-2003) who held the record with 2,635 assists. Sophomore Jen Darty topped her record from the 2006 season, setting the single-season record for block assists (95). She also currently ranks second in the single-season books with 117 records and looks to pass Jennifer Neiner (1994) who holds the record with 131 blocks. Libero Claire Tucker collected her 1,000th dig in the match against USC Upstate and moved into fifth place over the weekend in the career books with 1,032 digs. She also took over fifth place in the single-season books with 472 digs so far in 2007.

The Bears look to get back on the winning track as they take on Lipscomb in the first round of the conference tournament.

UNF

The Lady Ospreys fell in their final conference match of the season, 3-2 against Stetson Saturday evening.

USC Upstate

Opening up a five-game homestand to conclude its season with a perfect 3-0 mark, the USC Upstate volleyball team will look to close the season on a roll, hosting Presbyterian on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and UNC Asheville on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Hodge Center. Both games will be available through ASun.TV’s live video streaming package. Both matches will be rematches from earlier this year, with the Spartans dropping a 3-0 decision to Presbyterian on Sept. 18 and a 3-1 match to UNC Asheville on Sept. 1.

Entering last weekend, the Spartans were in danger of finishing in last place in their conference for the first time since tying for fifth in the Peach Belt Conference in 1992. Tied for 11th with North Florida as the weekend play began, the Spartans jumped into a tie for 10th-place after a 3-2 upset win over Atlantic Sun Tournament five-seed Mercer on Friday. A 3-0 win over Kennesaw State on Saturday moved the Spartans into sole possession of ninth place in the final A-Sun standings.

Stetson

The Stetson volleyball team had a successful yet bittersweet week. On the positive side, the Hatters extended their winning streak to three matches with a three-game home sweep of Volusia County rival Bethune-Cookman and a tense five-game win at A-Sun foe UNF to close out conference play; however Stetson still finished one match behind Gardner-Webb in the conference standings and failed to qualify for the conference tournament.

Against B-CU on Tuesday, October 30, Stetson's balanced attack featured a team .303 attack percentage and five players with at least nine kills; the same held true on defense where four Hatters recorded eight digs or more.

Saturday afternoon at UNF, Stetson did all it could do on its own to make the A-Sun tournament, rallying from a 2-1 deficit in games to beat the Ospreys in five. Senior outside hitter Beth Slabaugh notched a double-double with 17 kills and 15 digs while senior Rachel Miller tied her career high with 23 digs. In all, three Hatters had at least 17 kills and four had 15 or more digs.

In the end it was still not enough as Gardner-Webb's sweep of Lipscomb the same day gave the Runnin' Bulldogs the final berth in the conference tournament.