Thursday, November 18, 2010

FORT MYERS, Fla. – UNF’s first appearance in the Atlantic Sun Volleyball Championship was short lived as ETSU swept the Ospreys, 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-18) in the second game of the Atlantic Sun Volleyball Championship at FGCU’s Alico Arena on Thursday. The Bucs recorded 15 total team blocks to minimize the Ospreys’ offensive attack to advance to their fourth A-Sun Championship Semifinal in the past five seasons.

ETSU now advances to the semifinal game against No. 2 Kennesaw State on Friday at 7 p.m.  Kennesaw State’s lone trip to the A-Sun Championship was in the 2009 first round, where the Owls fell to Belmont, 3-0.  The Buccaneers defeated host Mercer to advance to the semifinal game in 2008, but fell to Lipscomb, 3-0 in the next round.

UNF held the lead throughout the first set until ETSU went on an 8-1 run to bring give UNF a point advantage at 14-13.  The Ospreys battled back to keep the lead until an error by all-conference second team outside hitter Paige Pridgeon tied the game at 22-all.  ETSU swung the score in its favor with three straight points to take the set.

ETSU held the lead from the opening serve until the final point to take set two.  The Bucs jetted to an eight-point lead at 19-11 and only allowed UNF to come within seven for the remainder of the set.  ETSU sprinted out to a seven-point lead, 18-11, in set three and held the advantage to take the match.

ETSU (25-8) had a hitting percentage of .298 compared to just .063 for UNF, however the Ospreys had four service aces to the Bucs one. 

The Bucs spread out their scoring as six players had five or more kills with all-conference first team middle blocker Alysa Long recording a team-high eight kills and a .438 hitting percentage. All-conference second team selection Whitney Cogburn filled out the stat sheet with 27 assists, six kills and three block assists.

Leading the way for UNF was Pridgeon who posted a double-double on 11 kills and 10 digs to go along with three aces. Nicole Baran was the only other Osprey with double-digit digs, recording a team-high 12.

The game between ETSU and Kennesaw State can be viewed on ASun.TV for free and followed on live stats at AtlanticSun.org.