Eagles Rebound from Saturday's Loss with Win Over Elon
10/16/2011 10:08:00 PM | Volleyball
ELON, N.C. - Behind 12 kills each from Hannah Nelson (Norcross, Ga.) and Bethany Sanford (Avondale, Ariz.) the Georgia Southern Volleyball team (12-10, 4-2) bounced back from Saturday's loss with a 3-1 win over Elon (14-9, 3-5) Sunday afternoon. The Eagles had four players with 10 or more kills and won the match 25-23, 25-16, 21-25, 25-19 over the Phoenix.
Parker Small (Charlotte, N.C.) and Enjoli Johnson (Lilburn, Ga.) added 11 and 10 kills respectively to GSU's offensive effort. The Eagles hit .233 as a team in the match and tallied five service aces. Georgia Southern hit over .300 only once all match but it came when it counted in set four. GSU tallied a .366 hitting percentage to close out the match with a close 25-19 set four victory.
The Eagles' defense held Elon below .200 in the first two sets and allowed a .168 mark for the match. Moriah Bellissimo (Blackstone, Va.) led the team with 22 digs, while Sanford added 20 digs on the defensive end. The Phoenix got the offense going in the final two sets and hit .250 and .278 in sets three and four respectively.
Georgia Southern led 19-13 late in the first set, but Elon rallied to pull within two points, 22-20. A Phoenix attack error and a kill be Sanford put the Eagles within a point of the first-set victory, but it would be three Elon points later before Johnson tallied the set-winning kill.
GSU jumped ahead 2-0 in the match and had an opportunity for the three-set sweep late in set three but a pair of errors ended the chance. The two teams were tied at 18-18 before the Phoenix rattled off two-straight points. The Eagles fought back to within one point twice but a kill by Chanelle Smith and two Georgia Southern errors ended the point.
The Eagles led by as many as seven points in the fourth set, 20-13, but had to fight off a Elon team that pulled to within four points, 22-18. Georgia Southern used two kills and a pair of Phoenix error to win the match and to prevent Elon from forcing a fifth set.
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