Winston-Salem, NC - The Piedmont College volleyball team has stretched its season-high seven game winning streak snatching up a pair of victories in North Carolina against both former and current conference rivals.  PC first dropped former GSAC partner Salem College in a 3-0 decision before pulling up its second straight sets win of the day in a 3-0 win over Greensboro, a USA South member.

The story of Piedmont's day was the defensive effort put up by the ladies from Demorest as PC posted 16 total team blocks to just two for the pair of opponents combined.  That stat included a seven block performance by Piedmont in the Salem match where the Spirits were unable to stuff the Lady Lions at the net even once. 

Against the Spirits, Piedmont experienced the closest of its two matches on the day winning 25-20, 25-23, and 25-17 in the three-set decision.  Piedmont picked up 38 kills as a team compared to 35 for the hosting team in a tightly contested match-up of former conference foes as the two spent three years together in the Great South Athletic Conference before Piedmont moved to the USA South in 2012-13.

Leading the way at the net for PC against the Spirits was a trio of hitters in Mallory Leary, Jennifer Opper, and Taylor Cramsey as all three had eight kills a piece.  Though Leary and Cramsey both posted respectable hitting percentages with a .261 and .381 respectively, it was Opper who stole the show needing just ten attempts to pick up her eight kills for an outrageous hitting percentage of .800. 

In their second match of the afternoon, Piedmont was quick to start blasting USA South member Greensboro 25-11 in the opening set before the Pride was able to keep it close down the stretch in the final two sets.  PC won the second 25-19 and the third 25-18 to claim a second win in about a four-hour time span at the tri-match affair.

Offensively, Opper stayed hot with five kills in just ten attempts for a .500 hitting percentage as one of two Lady Lions to hit better than .500 with a minimum of three attempts against Greensboro.  The second of those two Lady Lions was 2013 newcomer Katelyn Dobbs who needed just 11 attempts to get seven kills which tied her for the match high as she swung just under .550 for the match.

Defensively, the day belonged to Katie Faith who led PC in both matches with her 11 digs against Greensboro to go with her nine against Salem.  PC did not need many digs on the day though as the ball never really made it past the net against the Lady Lions who were led in blocks against Greensboro by the youngster Dobbs who had four block assists and one solo against the Pride while three different Piedmont players had three against the Spirits.

In the assists department on the day, the workload was against shared by veteran Katheryn Knarr and youngster Xandy Green who each had 14 helpers in the 3-0 win over Salem.  Green then led the way against Greensboro with her 13 set assists while Knarr added ten more.  Only one other Lady Lion collected more than two assists on the day as Faith had four against Greensboro alone, five total.

Piedmont's 9-1 start is the second time in the last three seasons the Lady Lions have won nine of their first ten contests as the 2011 team ran up a 11-1 record through 12.  With three more victories in as many matches, the 2013 version of PC volleyball would be off to its best start in the Sid Feldman era at Piedmont, which began with the 2008 season. 

PC gets back on the court with a Thursday night match against Agnes Scott College at the home of the Decatur-based school.  That road contest is set a 7:00 pm first serve and is the last non-conference match before Piedmont opens USA South play the following Saturday with a home tri-match featuring LaGrange and Huntingdon.