The Presbyterian College volleyball team rallied back from an early 2-0 deficit with a third set win, but faltered in the fourth set, to fall to Winthrop, 3-1 (25-19, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20) in Big South action tonight in Rock Hill, S.C.
Winthrop improves to 16-12 overall and 7-7 in the Big South, while PC ends the regular season 9-21, 7-7. The Big South volleyball tournament runs Nov. 21-24 at the Templeton Center.
Leading PC was Andrea Barman with nine kills, with Rachel Hall following with eight. PC tallied 43 total kills and 22 errors for a .153 hitting percentage. Ashtin Frank came away with 32 assists while Mary Trimpe finished with 27 digs.
Jackie Landers and Rachel Lenz led Winthrop with 16 kills apiece, with Irene Ojukwu behind with 13 and Alina Sopizhuk with 12. The Eagles hit 62 kills and posted 23 errors for a .269 hitting percentage.
Winthrop opened the first set with an 8-2 run, capitalizing on four kills from Lenz. PC rallied to a two-point deficit at 15-13, using four kills from Tripp and back to back aces from Mikayla Register. The Eagles responded with six kills over the next 16 points to take the eventual 25-19 win.
The Eagles led 6-2 early in the second set until the Blue Hose cut the lead to one, 7-6, off three kills from Barman. An 11-4 run gave Winthrop the 18-10 lead. PC cut it to a six-point set at 23-17 off a Hall kill, but a PC ball handling error and a Landers kill gave the Eagles the 25-17 second set win.
Down 8-5 in the third set, PC outscored Winthrop 7-4 to tie it up 12-12, helped by kills from Frank and Tripp. After several back and forth battles that saw nine ties, PC used a service error and blocks from Barman and Frank to finish off Winthrop in a close 25-23 third set win.
Tied 4-4 in the fourth set, Winthrop scored six of the next seven points to take a 10-5 lead. PC kills from Tripp, Hall and Barman helped the team make it a three-point affair at 11-8. The Eagles scored the next nine of 15 points to make it 20-14, before a 6-2 run by PC, helped in part to two WU errors, a Hall kill and Register ace, made it a two-point set at 22-20.
After a Winthrop kill from Sopizhuk gave the Eagles a 23-20 lead, Landers nailed back to back kills to give the home team the 25-20 set and match win.
