WINGATE – The Lees-McRae Bobcats delivered the UNCP Lady Braves their first loss of the 2012 season on Saturday afternoon at the Wingate Classic at the Cuddy Arena in the first game of the day.
UNCP (1-1) attempted a comeback and forced the Bobcats (1-1) into five sets, but the Bobcats used a solid 47 kills to halt the comeback. After dropping the first two sets (25-20, 25-21), the Lady Braves answered with two set victories 25-15 and 25-20, but the Bobcats proved to be too much by capturing the fifth and final set 15-7.
Newcomer Sawyer Gray and junior Marissa Baker led the offense for the Lady Braves as each earning 10 kills, while senior Shay Peterson slammed down another nine kills for the Black and Gold.
Setters Ashlyn Rebok and Ashtin Truesdale together dished out 33 assists, 17 and 16 respectively. The Lady Braves were solid defensively posting more digs than the Bobcats with 66 to their competitors 58, as defensive specialist Jennifer Grunden led the team with 18 digs in the match. UNCP notched seven service aces and seven team blocks.
Rachel Grether and Jordan Banta led Lees-McRae in kills collecting 13 and 11, respectively, of the Bobcats 48 team kills. Taylor Pritchett tallied 34 assists and four service aces. The Bobcats totaled 12 service aces and 12 team blocks.
