Monday, September 22, 2008

MACON, Ga. - Lipscomb sophomore Alex Kelly powered the Lady Bisons to two victories last week, running their win streak to five consecutive matches, including four straight to open conference play. One of the top offensive threats in the league in 2008, she was rewarded with her first career Player of the Week honor the conference office announced Monday.

Kelly posted match highs as the Lady Bisons extended their overall win streak to five straight matches and four straight A-Sun matches with a 3-2 win at Evansville Sept. 16 and a 3-0 win at Campbell on Friday. Kelly had match highs in both matches giving her seven match highs for the season. Kelly's play in the first two sets against Campbell were crucial to the outcome as the Lady Bisons remained perfect in the A-Sun with 12 straight set wins. The marketing major had a match-high 18 kills at Evansville and a match-high 16 kills at Campbell. She also posted a .344 hitting percentage against Campbell. The Kansas City, Mo. native leads the A-Sun overall in kills with 176, 3.91 per set and is second overall in the conference in hitting percentage (.365).

The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.

Other Top Performers

Channing Salava, Belmont (Fr. – S – Clearwater, Fla. – Undeclared) – Led the Bruins to two wins; recorded a triple double at Campbell on Saturday (10 kills, 37 assists, 12 digs) with a .444 hitting %; 8 kills, 42 assists and 7 digs vs. Chattanooga last Wed.

Ana Kokanovic, FGCU (Sr. – OH – Lasarevac, Serbia. – Pre-Management) – Led FGCU to a 2-0 week and their 12th straight win over A-Sun foes. The Eagles also improved to 4-0 in conference play with their 4th straight win.

Sara Bendorf, Jacksonville (Sr. – OH – Buckley, Wash. – Accounting) – For the week, she finished with 34 kills, 4.86 kills per set, a .262 hitting percentage (34-13-80), 21 digs, three digs per set and three blocks in two matches.

A-Sun Weekly Notes

Belmont senior leaders Cat Mundy and Emily Cahill are respectively making an impact on Belmont's record book. Mundy passed Debra Minot for fifth place on the career kills list on Saturday against Campbell; Mundy now has 1,040. Cahill sits atop the career hitting percentage list with a mark of .346.

FGCU has won 12 straight matches against A-Sun foes dating back to a 3-2 loss to Lipscomb on October 7, 2007, FGCU’s only loss to a league foe since joining the conference. FGCU is now 16-1 against A-Sun foes since the start of last year and is 50-7 in sets against league members during that span as well.

Entering the week with 973 career kills, Stetson senior outside hitter Rebecca Orzechowicz is poised to become only the ninth player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. She is also just eight digs shy of 900 for her career and will spend the rest of the season attempting to join Christy Hoffman '88, Melissa Roy '97, Kira Smedley '04 and former teammate DeeAnn Dempsey '05 in the Hatter 1,000 Kill/1,000 Dig Club.

JU is currently in the midst of its third longest winning streak under head coach Shaun Kupferberg at five straight matches with the longest being seven in 2007.