CLINTON, S.C. - The Presbyterian College volleyball team continued its hot start through Big South Conference play by sweeping Charleston Southern on Saturday, 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-22).
PC improves to 5-10 on the year and 2-0 in Big South matches. Charleston Southern falls to 3-14 on the year and 0-2 in league action.
Presley Mabrey (Lyman, S.C.) led the Blue Hose with 13 kills and reigning Big South Freshman of the Week Rachel Hall (Roswell, Ga.) added 11. Hall posted a .529 attack percentage and Mabrey attacked at a .435 clip.
As a team, the Blue Hose boasted a .344 attack percentage and recorded seven aces, led by Mabrey's three.
Mary Trimpe (Normal, Ill.) led the team in digs, with 13. Ashtin Frank (Bloomington, Ill.) racked up 40 assists and seven digs as well.
The Blue Hose raced to a fast start, grabbing a 6-5 lead in the afternoon's first set and scoring six straight points for an 11-5 advantage thanks to kills from Mabrey, Caroline Cann (Landrum, S.C.) and Allison Brown (Plano, Texas).
Charleston Southern called a timeout but PC continued to pull away. Hall tallied four kills in the opening set and Kelly Berryman (Normal, Ill.) matched her to hand the set to the Blue Hose, 25-13. The Blue Hose never trailed in the set.
The second set began in the opposite direction. The Buccaneers took advantage of PC errors and used several kills from Kayla Klinger to jump to a 14-5 lead. The two sides swapped points until Charleston Southern led 17-7, but the 10-point lead stopped there--PC went on a 10-1 run to claw back within one, 18-17.
During the run, Mabrey racked up three of her six second-set kills and recorded two aces to help the Blue Hose complete the comeback with an Aubrey Dooley (Lexington, S.C.) ace, evening the set at 20-20.
From there, two Buccaneer errors set Cann up for her fourth kill of the set and two kills from Rachel Hall put the cap on a 25-22 win.
Charleston Southern raced to an 8-3 lead in set number three in similar fashion to the second, but PC cut the gap to 9-7 before pulling even at 10-10.
The Buccaneers gained an edge by breaking an 11-11 tie and going up 16-13 on kills from Amy Nokes and Syndey Tracy, but the lead would be their last of the match. With Dooley serving, the Blue Hose scored seven straight points as Hall tallied three kills and Frank spiked two in a row to put PC ahead, 20-16.
Charleston Southern fought back to tie the set at 21-21 and 22-22, but kills from Mabrey and Berryman helped PC pull away before a Buccaneer attack error sealed the set and match, 25-22.
PC returns to Templeton Arena on Sunday to host UNC Wilmington at 2 p.m.
