FLORENCE, S.C. – The eighth-seeded UNC Pembroke volleyball team struggled with a strong net presences by the No. 17 and top-seeded Armstrong Atlantic Pirates that powered its way to a 3-0 victory on the opening day of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament quarterfinals to wrap up the season for the Lady Braves on Friday afternoon.
Game scores for the match were 25-9, 25-15 and 25-16. UNCP (16-21) dropped its 10th-straight match to Armstrong (28-1) who now holds a 5-2 record in tournament action.
Senior Marissa Baker led the Black and Gold with a .222 hitting percentage, while freshman Sabrina Gonzalez controlled a team-high seven kills. Setter Shekinah-Joy Toloumu dished out 22 assists, picked up a trio of digs and logged one kill, as libero Danielle Brown was behind 18 digs throughout the match. The Lady Braves finished the contest with a .019 hitting percentage following a third-set hitting percentage of .114 which included 11 kills.
"We had a couple of players like Danielle Brown that stepped up in a big way defensively for us and Marissa Baker, as a senior, didn't give up and fought very hard," said UNCP assistant coach Doug Byrd. "Armstrong brought the love of the game and they play hard on every play. We worked on a game plan, we had spots we were supposed to hit and they gave us those spots, we just didn't take advantage of them."
Armstrong was led by Stephanie Sfara with 13 kills and a .345 hitting percentage, while Emily Wylie hit .353 percent from the net. Kristen Holmes tallied four block assists, while Sfara and Taylor Permenter each posted three block assists to contribute to the 14 total block assists.
Despite holding off Armstrong's first set-points in the opening and middle sets, the Lady Braves challenged the Pirates in the third set and forced two errors along with a kill by Cecilia Brandon to make Armstrong earn the final game point.
The Lady Braves opened up the last set with a 2-0 run on strong hits by Gonzalez and Brandon, but the Pirates paced alongside the Lady Braves and capitalized on a 9-3 run to put the game away.
In game two, Armstrong jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but the Lady Braves proceeded to register the next four points on a trio of Pirate errors, as well as a monstrous service ace by Gonzalez.
