BOONE, N.C. – Ashton Gregory logged 12 kills to lead Appalachian State to a 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-19) Sun Belt volleyball victory over Georgia Southern Saturday night in the Holmes Center.
Lauren Reichard had nine kills and five blocks to lead Georgia Southern (12-17, 4-9), and
Katie Bange finished with eight kills, 14 assists, 10 digs and four blocks.Â
Melissa McMath added 13 kills for Appalachian State (4-22, 2-11), and Cassidy Stephenson notched eight kills. Ashlyn Brown finished with 33 assists and 13 digs.
The story
The box score tells the story as the teams had the same amount of attack attempts (119) and errors (19), but the Mountaineers recorded 45 kills to the Eagles' 39.
GS trailed 21-16 in the first set but went on a 7-1 run and took the lead on a block by Bange and
Reilly Bosworth. Sloan Evans and Mikel Coleman put down consecutive kills to give App set point, but the Eagles fought it off with a kill from
Cathrine Murray. App responded with kills by Coleman and Gregory to open a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Eagles led 18-16 in the second set before McMath recorded three kills, and Gregory added a fourth in an 8-1 Mountaineer run. Bange got kill to cut the lead to 24-20, but a hitting error by the Eagles ended the set. The Mountaineers pushed a 16-15 lead to 23-18 with a 7-3 run late in the third set.
Quotable from head coach Dustin Wood
"We're really disappointed in the results tonight. We got clipped again on huge runs against us where we mentally broke down and couldn't get out of certain rotations. We had way too many hitting errors, too many ball handling errors and again tonight, we struggled with the connections within our offense."
"We are looking for players to produce consistently each night. They are fighting hard, but the execution and production are lacking each night. We need to do a better job getting the ball to Katie (Bange) and Anna (Wenger) and Lauren (Reichard). I know they can handle more of the offensive load. We have to make changes and go back to battle tomorrow night."
Next up
The Eagles cap their stretch of playing four matches in five days in three cities as they stay in Boone to play Appalachian State Sunday at 4 p.m.
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