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Box Score 2 Demorest, GA - The Piedmont College volleyball team was denied a 14th straight victory today as Maryville College defeated PC 3-1 in the first of two matches on the day for the Lady Lions who hosted their third tri-match at the Cave this season. PC was able to salvage the Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Agnes Scott College later in the afternoon but saw its longest winning streak in program history come to an unfortunate end.
In the team's opener vs. Maryville, Piedmont looked to be headed to another dramatic match opening up with a thrilling 27-25 tiebreak win in the first set to take the 1-0 lead over the Scots. Two of PC's last three matches have gone five sets with the Lady Lions having to come from behind in each match to pull out the win. The second set looked to be setting up another instant classic for Piedmont though it went the way of Maryville 28-26 as the Scots evened up the match at one set apiece.
Another close set in third would shift the momentum to Maryville's side of the net as the Scots used 15 kills while holding Piedmont to a sub-.100 hitting percentage as a team to claim the third 25-20. Pulling away in the fourth with a 25-16 win, Maryville was able to take three sets off the home team for a 3-1 win. In their previous 13 matches which all were wins, Piedmont dropped only nine sets total.
The Lady Lions were still shaken after dropping their first match of the day when it came time to face the Scotties of Agnes Scott College in the finale on Sunday as PC dropped the opening set 25-21. Despite the appearance that Piedmont may be staring its second straight loss in the face, the Lady Lions answered the call and withstood the pressure to take the next three sets straight winning 25-18 in both the second and fourth sets sandwiching a crushing 25-13 performance in set four.
With the 3-1 win against ASC, Piedmont was 1-1 on the afternoon in its pair of matches though that was the not the whole story as the Lady Lions honored a terrific four-member senior class just prior to the first serve with the Scotties. Included in that quartet was
Jessica Hollis,
Danielle Maffett,
Ashley Fannon, and
Katheryn Knarr. The four are the last class graduating from Piedmont's volleyball program that was a part of the 2010 team that won a conference title and earned the program's second trip to the NCAA National Tournament.
Perhaps more impressive than the commitment of the 2013 senior class on the court (78-41 overall record in four years, .682 winning percentage) was the commitment the four showed in the classroom. Each year that the class has been on the team, they have been honored as an AVCA All-Academic Team.
Leading the way at the net in the two matches was sophomore
Taylor Cramsey who topped the charts in both hitting percentage and total kills hitting .217 with 21 kills in 60 total attempts for Piedmont. A trio of Lady Lions had 16 kills in the two matches combined including junior
Kaitlin Norman, senior
Ashley Fannon, and junior
Jennifer Opper.
Having been recognized already on this her senior day,
Katheryn Knarr was the top assist getter with 33 in the two matches total though
Xandy Green followed close behind with 31 on the day. Defensively,
Katie Faith once again was the top digger with 56, more than doubling the next total in that column. Norman led the way with her seven total blocks as two more in Opper and
Katelyn Dobbs had six a piece.
Now 16-2 overall on the season, Piedmont's loss to Maryville is its first in USA South play as the Lady Lions move to 3-1 in the league. PC is 14-1 in its last 15 matches and continues to be one of the hottest teams in the USA South as the squad holds the best overall record amongst the 13 league members.
The Lady Lions will get back on the court when they travel to Greensboro College this weekend who will host a tri-match of USA South action with Mary Baldwin College also coming to town. PC is set to play at 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm in the October 5th tri-match with Greensboro being the first of the two opponents for the ladies from Demorest.
