SAVANNAH, Ga. – The UNCP volleyball team took part in an epic five-set thriller Friday during the quarterfinal round of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament, but their upset bid would be cut short as the host Armstrong Atlantic Pirates would capture the victory by a 3-2 score.
Game scores for the match were 24-26, 26-24, 26-24, 22-25 and 11-15. With the loss the Lady Braves' season concludes with a 19-14 record, while Armstrong Atlantic (21-12) advances to face Montevallo in tomorrow's semifinal match. The winner of that match faces the winner of the Flagler/USC Aiken matchup in the tournament championship on Sunday.
The Lady Braves stormed back from a 17-12 deficit in the first set to tie the score up at 23-23, but a late-game rally by the Pirates fueled their victory 26-24. UNCP would not have their hopes deflated, however, as they jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the second set, but a comeback by the Pirates would knot the score up at 24-24. UNCP would decide to take the game when attacks by Rebecca Morgan and Shay Peterson would find the floor on Armstrong Atlantic's side, giving UNCP the 26-24 victory, and tying up the match score at 1-1.
The third set started much like the first two, with each team exchanging points in running out to a 9-9 tie. They would continue to battle out to a 16-16 tie, and consecutive aces by Armstrong Atlantic would cause UNCP head coach Jeff Billington to use a timeout to make sure his service defense was set up. Another point by the Pirates after the timeout would give them an 18-16 lead, but the Lady Braves would come back with three straight points to retake the lead at 19-18. The Pirates would go on a 3-1 run to retake the lead and increase it to 22-20, forcing Billington to use his second timeout. UNCP came out of the break to score three straight points to take a 23-22 lead, but the Pirates mounted another comeback to grab a 24-23 lead and sit with set point. UNCP then used kills from Allie Schneider and Morgan to take a 25-24 lead, before another point by UNCP would give the Lady Braves their 26th of the set, and the win, to take a 2-1 match lead.
Like the three prior sets, the fourth started with both teams exchanging points out to a 6-6 tie, and again at 14-14, but the Pirates would score four straight points to get an 18-14 lead. UNCP would cut the deficit to 16-19, but a Schneider kill attempt would miss to give the host team a 20-16 lead, and force Billington to use his second timeout of the match. The Lady Braves would respond to the pep talk and go on a 5-2 run out of the timeout to tie up the score at 22-22, but three straight points by Armstrong Atlantic would fittingly send the match to a fifth set.
The two teams would continue to go back-and-forth in the fifth set with the Pirates grabbing a 5-3 lead, but the Lady Braves would mount a comeback after another Billington timeout behind consecutive service aces by Heather Bolwerk and a kill by Schneider to take their first lead of the set 8-7.
The two teams then changed sides before Armstrong Atlantic would recapture the lead at 9-8 but another kill by Schneider would tie up the match at 9-9. The Pirates would then score three consecutive points to grab a 12-9 lead and push their lead to match point at 14-9, but a kill by Schneider and an attack error by Brittany Wolf would bring the Lady Braves back to an 11-14 deficit. A kill by Armstrong Atlantic's Gwen Clarke would end the Lady Brave's upset bid and give Armstrong Atlantic the five-set victory.
UNCP was led by juniors Allie Schneider and Rebecca Morgan, who notched 18 and 17 kills, respectively. Schneider also led the squad with a .387 attack percentage while adding four block assists on defense. Morgan's 17 kills pushed her past the 300-mark for the season and left her with a total of 301 following her first campaign for the Black and Gold, and her 12 digs on defense gave her the eighth double-double of her season. Tiara Anderson added 12 kills, giving the trio a combined 47 of UNCP's 59 total kills in the match.
Heather Bolwerk notched a career-high 51 assists in the match while also adding five digs, four aces, and also registered a team and match-high six assisted blocks. Bolwerk's assist total on Friday left her just 11 shy of 1,000 for the season.
Marissa Baker's 20 digs stood as a match high, and put the freshman over the 500-mark on the season - finishing her maiden campaign with 506.
