PEMBROKE – The Montevallo Falcons used a solid hitting percentage and a tremendous sideout percentage in handing the UNCP Lady Braves volleyball squad their first conference defeat of the season Saturday at the Jones Center in Pembroke via game scores of 25-22, 25-16 and 25-23.
BOX SCORE

The Lady Braves (7-3, 1-1 PBC) fall to 0-3 all-time against the Falcons (7-4, 3-0 PBC) who joined the PBC for the first time last season. 

"They sided-out 66% of the time, so it just goes to show you that their ball control was better than our serving. I thought they played outstanding defense - they kept everything in play," explained UNCP head coach Jeff Billington.

"When we got them out of system, they were still in system somehow.  Us on the other hand, when we got out of system, we were scrambling around and we looked like we didn't know what to do."

The veteran-heavy Falcons hit to the tune of a .236 average compared to a .169 by the Lady Braves, and they sided out at 66%, compared to 54% by UNCP.  UNCP entered the match leading the PBC in blocks per set and upped their season average with a total of 11 in the match, compared to five by Montevallo.

UNCP was led on offense once again by junior Rebecca Morgan and her 13 kills and .225 hitting percentage.  The next closest scorer for UNCP was senior Rachel Young with seven kills on a .286 hitting percentage.

Heather Bolwerk finished with 25 assists while sophomore Morgan Ridge recorded seven of her own while Rebecca Morgan and Marissa Baker led the defensive effort with 14 digs apiece.

The Lady Braves will look to regroup and rebound on Monday when they travel up I-95 for a nonconference matchup with Fayetteville State at 6:00 p.m.