College of Charleston, Georgia Southern Set to Play in Championship

College of Charleston, Georgia Southern Set to Play in Championship Match 

BOONE, N.C. - The top two teams in the Southern Conference South Division will face off tomorrow to see who will claim the SoCon Volleyball title.  In the two semifinal matches, No. 1 South seed College of Charleston defeated No. 2 North seed UNCG, 3-1, and No. 2 South seed Georgia Southern beat No. 1 North seed Elon, 3-1.  The championship match will be the third straight year two teams from the South Division will play in the finals.

In the opening semifinal match, the College of Charleston Cougars defeated the UNCG Spartans, 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 22-25, 25-19).  The win moves the Cougars to 29-5 on the year, while UNCG finished the year at 22-12.  The win gives College of Charleston head coach Jason Kepner his 100^th career victory.

College of Charleston never trailed in the first set after winning the first four points to take the set, 25-17.  With the score tied 9-9, the Cougars used a 7-1 run to pull away from the Spartans.  Pacing the Cougars in the first set was the SoCon Player of the Year Cole Dawley, who had seven assists, three digs and two kills.

In the second set, the Cougars used another run late to win, 25-19.  Tied at 14, College of Charleston went on a 7-2 to distance themselves from UNCG.  First team all-conference member Sarah Havel led the Cougars in the set, as she had a .625 attacking percentage with her five kills on eight attempts with no errors.  The junior middle blocker also tallied four digs, one block solo and one block assist in the second set.

The third set belonged to the Spartan from start, as the won 25-22.  After jumping out to a 6-2 lead, UNCG never trailed, and answered every time the Cougars closed within a point.  Leading the way for the Spartans in the set was senior outside hitter Caley Redden, who had three digs, two kills, two assists and two block assists.

After battling back and forth to begin the fourth set, College of Charleston used a 9-2 run with the score knotted 6-6 to pull away and win the set, 25-19.  Helping the Cougars take the fourth set was senior Ginny Phillips.  The second team all-conference performer had nine kills on 14 attempts with one error for a .571 attack percentage.  Phillips also recorded two digs, one assist and one service ace in the set.

Overall, Phillips' double-double of 16 kills and 12 digs led the Cougars.  Phillips also had four assists and one ace in the match.  First team all-conference player Dawley was one kill shy of a triple-double.  Dawley recorded 47 assists, 12 digs, nine kills and two block assists.  Leading the way for the Spartans in a losing effort was junior Ariel Newman, who had 15 kills, 14 digs and one block assists.

In the second semifinal match, the Georgia Southern Eagles took down the Elon Phoenix, 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-11, 25-18).  The win moves the Eagles to 26-8 on the year, while Elon ends its season with a 21-14 final record. 

The first set went back and forth, but Georgia Southern pulled out a late run to take the set, 25-21.  With the score tied 17-17, the Eagles won eight of the next 12 points behind the strong play senior middle hitter Sarah Gildersleeve, who had a .600 attack percentage for the set with three kills on five attempts with no errors.  She also accounted for two block assists in the set.

The second set went to the Phoenix, 25-23, after they capitalized on two important runs.  After dropping the first two points of the set, Elon used a 5-0 run to take the lead of the set.  Once the Eagles closed within one at 12-11, the Phoenix used another run of 4-0 to pull away for good.  Leading the way for Elon in the set was junior setter Megan McMahon, who recorded 13 assists and four digs.

Georgia Southern took a huge lead in the third set to win, 25-11.  Leading 7-5, the Eagles put together a 13-2 run to take control of the set.  Behind the play of first team all-conference player Kate Van Dyke, Georgia Southern was able to put the Phoenix away.  In the set, the sophomore setter had eight assists, three digs, three kills in four attempts with no errors and two block assists.

The Eagles started the fourth set with a commanding run to take control of the set and win, 25-18.  Georgia Southern started the set with an 11-3 lead on the way to clinching the final set.  In the set, junior outside hitter Bethany Sanford accounted for seven kills and two digs to help the Eagles.

Overall, the Eagles played behind the strong performance of Gildersleeve, who had nine kills, six block assists and one dig.  In a losing effort, Elon relied on the play of McMahon, who recorded a double-double with 36 assists and 12 digs.

The Southern Conference Championship match between College of Charleston and Georgia Southern will be held at the Holmes Convocation Center in Boone, N.C., at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21.  To follow live stats, visit www.soconsports.com and for live video feed, go to www.socontv.com.