The Presbyterian College volleyball team posted a 3-1 win over S.C. State but suffered a 3-0 loss to UNF in the final day of the Best Western Invitational held Sept. 9-10 in Jacksonville, Fla. Both matches this afternoon were played on the campus of UNF. The Blue Hose defeated the Bulldogs by scores of 25-22, 20-25, 25-21 and 25-20 and fell to the Ospreys by scores of 19-25, 19-25 and 20-25.
PC goes 2-1 in the tournament and sits at 2-6 on the season. The Blue Hose return home to host the College of Charleston Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
The Blue Hose opened the first set against S.C. State with a 14-8 lead before the Bulldogs fought back to tie it at 17. PC responded with a block by Kelly Berryman (Normal, Ill.) and Ashtin Frank (Bloomington, Ill.), with Frank following with a kill to make it a 19-17 game. After an ace by Berryman gave PC the 20-17 lead, S.C. State fought back to make it a one point affair at 21-20 with a kill by Desire Waller, who led the Bulldogs with 14 on the afternoon. That would be as close as they would get as PC scored the next two in a row and went on for the eventual 25-22 win.
In the second set, PC led 7-4 before S.C. State went on a 14-4 run to take an 18-11 lead. The Blue Hose cut the margin to two, 20-22, but the Bulldogs scored the next three to take the 25-20 win.
Down 3-5 in the third set, PC turned a 6-1 run into a 9-6 lead and despite S.C. State cutting the margin to one at 12-11, the Blue Hose were able to hang on to the 25-21 win off a 17-kill effort, five coming from Caroline Cann (Landrum, S.C.).
In a fourth set that saw 10 ties, but just three lead changes, the Blue Hose and the Bulldogs were knotted at 20 before PC rattled off five straight, with Presley Mabrey (Lyman, S.C.) leading the way with a kill and a service ace, to take the 25-20 win and the match.
Leading PC in the first match was Cann with 15 kills. Mabrey and Berryman followed with 14 and 10 kills, respectively. Frank ended the night with 56 assists. Defensively Mary Trimpe (Normal, Ill.) paced the team with 13 digs.
Presbyterian College opened the first set of the match against UNF with a 16-11 lead, in part to three kills by Cann and four from Berryman. The Ospreys took control, down by five, and scored eight unanswered to build a 19-16 lead. UNF would go on to post a 6-3 advantage, taking the 25-19 set win.
The Blue Hose kept the second set close with UNF and led by three at 18-15 in a back-and-forth battle before UNF scored three unanswered to tie it up at 18. The Ospreys capitalized on a PC receiving error and three straight attack errors to build a 22-18 lead and take the eventual 25-19 win.
Tied 11-11 in the third set, UNF went on a 9-2 run to take a 20-13 lead and kept the Blue Hose at bay, winning by a final of 25-20.
Leading PC in the second match of the day was Can with 11 kills. Trimpe and Cann paced the team in digs with 11 apiece.
