 |
|
| Mountaineers take home court advantage;
topple Buccaneers 3-2 |
Josh
Dernosek
Sports Beat |
Christina Hill | The Appalachian |
The visiting East Tennessee State
University Buccaneers (5-11, 3-5 SoCon) entered Boone with no idea
of the advantage Appalachian State University’s women’s
volleyball team owned at the start of the match Tuesday night.
For the first time since the end of the 2000
season the Mountaineers hosted an opposing team in the confines
of Varsity Gymnasium.
The advantage panned out and the Mountaineers
(10-10, 4-4 SoCon) toppled visiting ETSU in a thrilling five game
match: 30-27, 30-26, 32-34, 26-30, 15-13.
“The fans are right on top of you and I
like to think that that gave us a little bit of an advantage,”
said head coach Chris Redding. “I am sure that they will have
a little payback when we go [to Johnson City, Tenn.,] and that will
be great, because that is a great atmosphere to play in.” |
Christina Hill | The Appalachian |
At the start of the match the Mountaineers looked
poised and unstoppable, winning the first two games convincingly.
Then the two teams entered the locker rooms for
a bit of an intermission.
After the break, the Buccaneers were rejuvenated
and looked as though they were not ready to pack the bus and head
back to Tennessee.
After winning the third and fourth games, ETSU
looked to have the upper hand going into the fifth and final frame.
“I think that they made good adjustments
[after the intermission],” said Redding. “They shut down
our middle and we didn’t adjust to that, if you don’t
adjust to their adjustments they are going to get you every time.”
The Mountaineers had other ideas. |
|
“We challenged [our
girls] after game four and said ‘you know we have to play better
as a team,’” said Redding. “We came together and
realized that we weren’t going to win with individual performances.”
As the team came together, it was beginning to
look as though Appalachian was going to walk away with game five,
starting with an 7-1 run and a high level of momentum.
After a time out on the Bucs sidelines, ETSU
came back with in two, proving they were not going to leave easily.
The crowd watched nervously as Appalachian pulled
out a 15-13 victory in game five, sealing the match victory and
sending ETSU back down 321.
“It was two young teams and it was competitive
and a little wild at times, but it was fun,” said Redding.
“The more close, tight, pressure situations that we are in
now as a young team is going to help us in the long run.”
Leading the Mountaineer charge was junior middle
blocker Katherine E. Dean with 22 kills and seven solo blocks.
The freshman duo of Kali J. Rumberger and Chrissy
A.Finch saw 17 and 16 kills respectively, and junior defensive specialist
Alexis E. Mosley tallied 28 digs.
The volleyball team hosts Georgia Southern University
on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. in the George M. Holmes Convocation Center.
|
|
For an up tp date sports calendar below!
|
|
 |
 |
