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SAVANNAH, Ga. – Using a .330 hitting percentage and 45 kills, the nationally-ranked Armstrong State Pirates captured the 3-0 shutout win on Wednesday afternoon over the visiting UNC Pembroke Braves to complete the series sweep of the Black and Gold in Peach Belt Conference action inside the ARC.
The loss marked the second-consecutive for UNCP (14-17, 2-12 PBC), while Armstrong (22-1, 15-0) remained perfect in PBC play. The set scores were 25-18, 25-15 and 25-22.
Junior Nicole Mathews collected 10 kills, while freshman Mallory Davis led the Braves with a team-best .375 hitting percentage. On defense, Danielle Brown tallied 12 digs with setter Sabrina Gonzalez dishing out 24 assists. Both Davis and Caroline Pridgen shared a game-high three block assists. Armstrong was led by Stephanie Sfara and Anna McGee with 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
No. 16 Armstrong struggled in the opening set as UNCP took a 4-2 lead, but serving by Kayla Berns, as well as a pair of kills from McGee and three errors on UNCP gave the Pirates a 3-point advantage. Despite only trailing Armstrong by two points at the 18-16 mark, UNCP was unable to fight off the 6-point run which pushed set one in favor of the Pirates as the team logged a combined .452 hitting percentage.
The Pirates again took set two after tallying 14 kills compared to UNCP's four, but a close contest kept the scored tied a 11-11 on an error by Armstrong, however, the Pirates put the game away with a 14-4 run and a kill by McGee. Finally in set three, UNCP out-hit the Pirates with a .281 hitting percentage and forced Armstrong to commit five hitting errors. The Braves controlled the pace of set three and held the lead until a kill by Sfara tied the contest at 17-17 and with four points on Brittany Hereth serving, the Pirates soared ahead for the final lead and the win.
