Volleyball checkmates Bishops

Coming into Tuesday’s game against Christopher Newport University, N.C. Wesleyan had lost 25 consecutive games against the Captains, dating all the way back to 1999.

The Bishops did little to reverse that trend in front of a large crowd at the Freeman Center as the sixth-ranked Captains knocked off the visitors in three quick sets.

CNU, who improved their record to 10-2 with the victory, didn’t wait long to get the scoring started. They jumped up out to a 5-1 lead in the first set and stretched their advantage to 10-5 before the Bishops slipped a finesse shot past the CNU defense to shrink the deficit to 10-6. The Captains answered back with a thunderous kill by junior Christie Fellows to bring the score to 11-6.

With the Captains up 13-6 and quickly pulling away, N.C. Wesleyan called a time out in an attempt to stop the damage. After the stoppage in play, the Captains’ outscored the Bishops 12-2 and took the first set by a score of 25-8. Senior Chelsea McClure put an exclamation point on the set, firing a perfectly placed kill past the Bishops defense to give the Captains at 1-0 overall advantage.

CNU freshman Carter Pestos started the second set with two aces to give the Captains a quick 2-0 lead. After that early deficit, the Bishops went virtually point-for-point with the Captains. With CNU sitting on a 13-11 lead, Fellows notched a kill that stretched the advantage to three. But the visitors refused to go down quietly, and several points later the Captains were nursing a miniscule 21-18 lead.

That is when the CNU’s superior athletes took control. After tacking on two quick points, senior setter Jessie Heavenrich made a diving dig on a sharply struck ball to set up a kill by freshman Jesse Kolden. One point later Fellows put the finishing touch on the set, delivering a thundering left-handed kill that knocked a N.C. Wesleyan player to the ground.

The Bishops got the ball rolling in the third frame, quickly blocking two spikes to bring the score to 2-0. They would extend their lead to 7-3 before the Captains finally woke up. With the score resting at 7-6, Kolden fired back-to-back aces to give the Captains their first lead. The remainder of the set was fairly evenly matched, but freshman Jess Fedderson ended it with a kill at match point to give the Captains a 25-20 victory.

“We have gotten off to a great start this season,” said junior libero Abby Hogge. “We’re working hard with hopes of continued success.  Our team is similar to the 2009 squad because this season we have many freshmen. This has only strengthened our team and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the season will bring.”

McClure, Kolden and junior Bailey Jensen all reached double digits in kills for the Captains. Heavenrich notched 41 of the team’s 49 assists. Hogge had a game high 25 digs and Heavenrich added 19, a career high for her.

“Our major goal for this season is to accomplish small victories every day,” Hogge continued. “We hope those small victories accomplish larger victories at the end of the season.”

Aside from the action on the court, fans may have noticed two new promotions being put on this season. The first, “Fan of the Game,” awards the craziest fan at each contest a spot on a couch, which sits on the baseline of the court, mere feet away from the players. The second promotion, dubbed “Guest Coach,” awards one lucky fan the opportunity to sit on the CNU bench for one game.

Later in the week, the Captains defeated both Methodist and Greensboro with scores of 3-0. The Captains improved to 12-2 overall with a perfect 5-0 record in conference games.

Posted by Mike Schoeffel on Sep 28 2011. Filed under Sports, Volleyball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.