The Presbyterian College volleyball team rallied to match point in the fifth game, after dropping the first two games of the night, but the Bulldogs recorded back-to-back-to-back kills to take the game and match, defeating the Blue Hose, 3-2 in action at the Justice Center in Asheville, N.C. UNCA won by scores of 25-22, 25-18, 22-25, 23-25 and 16-14.
PC dropped to 11-16 overall and 8-4 in the Big South, while UNCA improved to 10-17, 6-5.
Presley Mabrey led PC with 21 kills; she was followed by Andrea Barman with 17, Rachel Hall with 11 and Allison Brown with 10. Mary Trimpe was one shy of her career-high with 35 digs and Ashtin Frank had 60 assists to pace the team. The Blue Hose posted 39 errors and 65 total kills for a .120 hitting percentage.
UNC Asheville was led by Holly Shelton with 18 kills and Meredith Foster and Anna Moore with 15 each. Katie Davis posted 54 assists while Alex Stewart added 14 assists. With just 20 errors and 64 total kills the Bulldogs finished with a .226 hitting percentage.
Down 10-13 in game one, UNC Asheville used two kills and a PC attack error to rally to a 14-14 tie. Kills by Brown and Elizabeth Miler pushed PC back ahead at 16-14 before the Bulldogs fought back with a kill by Shelton and another PC error to give the game its sixth tie.
The seventh tie came off an attack error by PC that made it 19-19. Foster gave UNCA the lead at 20-19 before Mabrey's kill knotted the game at 20-20. The next few points were back and forth until the Bulldogs took the lead for good, 23-22, with a PC error. The Blue Hose faltered the next two points as UNC Asheville took the 25-22 game one win.
Tied 5-5 early in game two, UNCA went on a 5-1 run, highlighted by two kills by Moore, to take a 10-6 lead. PC cut the margin to two at 9-11 off two kills by Mabrey and one by Hall. Three straight points by UNCA and the Bulldogs led by four again, 14-10.
PC fought back with a kill and ace by Mabrey and a kill by Hall to cut the margin to one at 13-14. UNCA outscored the Blue Hose 11-5 down the stretch, however, capitalizing on five kills and three blocks to take the 25-18 game two win.
With PC and UNCA tied at 3-3 in game three, the Blue Hose won the next 10 points in a row, capped off by two kills by Barman and Mabrey each, as well as back to back service aces by Aubrey Dooley, to take a 13-3 lead.
UNC Asheville chipped away and cut the margin to three at 19-22, before a Mabrey kill made it 23-19. A PC error and UNCA block made it 23-21 before the Blue Hose used a kill be Hall and Mabrey to take the 25-22 game three win.
The Blue Hose led by as much as five in game four, 14-9, before the Bulldogs fought back to 16-16. Tied 18-18, UNCA used a kill by Shelton and two PC errors to take a 22-18 lead. PC scored four straight, highlighted by kills by Miler, Brown and Hall to tie the game 22-22.
Tied again at 23-23, Brown posted a kill and added a block assist to lead the team to the 25-23 win.
UNC Asheville opened up a 4-1 lead early in the fifth game before PC cut the margin to one, 3-4, off a Hall kill and UNCA error. Tied 6-6, UNCA went on a 3-0 run, capitalizing on kills by Shelton and Foster to take a 9-6 lead.
Barman recorded two kills and PC took advantage of two Bulldog errors to storm back and take its first lead of game at 10-9, forcing a UNCA timeout. UNCA knotted the game at 10-10 off a kill by Christine Lakatos before the Blue Hose retook the lead with a Barman kill. Mabrey added another kill to give PC the 12-10 lead before UNCA tied it up again with back to back kills.
PC took a 13-12 lead off kill by Mabrey that hit the back left corner but gave it up off a Moore kill. Both teams traded points with PC finding match point, 14-13, off another Mabrey kill. UNCA posted three straight kills, two coming from Moore to rally to the 16-14 game five and match win.
PC travels to Gardner Webb for its next match Saturday at 5 p.m.
