Box Score

BOONE, N.C. – Katie Bange recorded 14 kills, including three in a late Georgia Southern run, as the Eagles fought back from a 13-9 fifth-set deficit to post a 3-2 (25-23, 15-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-13) Southern Conference volleyball victory at Appalachian State Friday night.

The Eagles (18-3, 6-1 SoCon) called a timeout after a kill by Emily Corrigan gave Appalachian State (11-10, 2-5) the 13-9 lead in the fifth set. Jamie DeRatt gave GSU a side out, and Katalin Minnerly served out the set as the Eagles scored six straight points. Bange had three kills during the run, and Minnerly added a solo block.

"We found a way to win when things weren't going well," said Georgia Southern coach Dustin Wood. "We remained focused and stayed with what we have been trained to do. I'm proud of them for that, but we struggled tonight at executing on our end. I'm not happy with some of the mistakes, but we can fix them."

Minnerly finished with 52 assists and seven digs, and Bange added four blocks. DeRatt had 16 kills and 11 digs, while Nicole Jeschelnik posted 13 kills, 11 digs and three blocks. Kym Coley tallied 10 kills and five blocks, and Crysten Curry finished with seven kills and four blocks.

Lindsey Sauls led the way for Appalachian State with 17 kills, and Dalton Tolliver finished with 10 kills and three blocks. Meghan Mahoney had a match-high 26 digs, and Paige Brown collected 52 assists and seven digs.

Four straight kills, with the last two coming from Bange, gave the Eagles a 4-1 lead in the fifth set. The Mountaineers came back behind the serve of Mahoney, who got two aces in a row. The Eagles took an 8-7 lead on a Jeschelnik kill, but the Mountaineers went on a 6-1 run with the aid of three Corrigan kills to open the 13-9 cushion.

Four of the sets in the closely-contested match were decided by two points, and there were 18 ties and seven lead changes in the third set alone. Georgia Southern had a chance to close things out in the fourth set, but the Mountaineers erased a late four-point deficit and took the set 26-24. After the Eagles took a 19-15 lead following a block by Coley and Bange, App went on an 8-1 run to open a 23-20 advantage.

The Apps had two set points, but a setting error followed by a block by GSU's Christina Vereb tied the score 24-24. Sauls gave Appalachian State another set point with a kill, and Corrigan finished it off with a kill to tie the match.

The Eagles take on Western Carolina in a conference match tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.