Volleyball remains undefeated in USA South

Adam Baker/ The Captain's Log

Senior setter Jesse Heavenrich and senior middle blocker Chelsea McClure completed the last two home games of their respective careers in the most fitting way possible: by defeating two USA South opponents.

The Captains beat the Peace College Pacers 3-0 at the Freeman Center on Sunday night. Earlier in the day, they defeated another USA South opponent, Meredith College, also by a score of 3-0. With the two victories, the Captains are now a remarkable 70-0 against USA South competition since McClure and Heavenrich joined the team in 2008.

Before the contest against Peace, McClure and Heavenrich were recognized for the contributions they have made to the volleyball program over the last four seasons.  During their time on the team, the Captains have won three USA South Championships, three conference tournament championships, all while compiling a win percentage of 86 percent and reaching the Elite Eight twice.

After receiving a round of applause from the fans, the final home game of the regular season got underway.

The Captains came out sluggish in the first set, falling behind the Pacers 7-4 thanks to several attacking errors. That was the biggest deficit faced by the Captains all night. Several minutes later, CNU grabbed an 8-7 lead thanks to a kill by junior outside hitter Cory Harris and would never trail again. They went on to win the set 25-18. Freshman right side hitter Jesse Kolden had a set-high five kills.

CNU came out refreshed in the second set, jumping out to a quick 10-3 lead behind kills from Kolden and junior right side hitter Christie Fellows. There were two stretches during the match in which the Captains’ reeled off five points in a row.

The girls were also at their most efficient in the second set, tallying an impressive .462 hitting percentage, compared to .371 in the first set and .345 in the final set.

With the match all but in the bag in the final set, coach Lindsay Burch gave several reserve players some game experience. Still, this change of personnel hardly slowed the Captains down. Sophomore middle blocker Chastity Lacy, junior setter Alyssa Kidd and freshman middle blocker Terran Bargeron contributed to a 25-13 match-clinching set for the Captains.

The most impressive run of the night came in the middle of the last set, when the Captains’ reeled off a match-high nine consecutive points. Junior middle blocker Bailey Jensen had three kills during the run.

Kolden led the Captains with 10 kills, followed by Fellows with seven and McClure with six. Junior defensive specialist and co-captain Abby Hogge tallied a team-high 16 digs, several of which were highlight-reel quality.

Earlier in the day, the Captains’ defeated the Avenging Angels of Meredith College in three sets: 25-13, 25-15 and 25-15 respectively. Jensen and Harris led the Captains with seven kills a-piece, followed by McClure with seven and Jarrett with six. Hogge had a match-high 15 digs.

The Captains’ record now sits at 27-4 overall and 16-0 in the conference. They play in Virginia Beach tonight at 7 p.m. against Virginia Wesleyan, and then finish the regular season in Danville on Saturday against Averett and Ferrum.

Posted by Mike Schoeffel on Oct 26 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.