| friday volleyball RESULTS |
Georgia 3, Mississippi State 1
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Arkansas 3, South Carolina 0
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Kentucky 3, Alabama 0
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Florida 3, LSU 1
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Tennessee 3, Ole Miss 2
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Georgia Defeats Mississippi State, 3-1
ATHENS, Ga. – The University of Georgia volleyball team defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 3-1, on Senior Night at the Ramsey Student Center on Friday evening.
Georgia jumped out to a two-set lead by taking the opening frames, 25-14 and 25-18, but Mississippi State took the third set 25-23 to extend the match. In the fourth set, the Bulldogs from Athens came away victorious 25-22. With the win, Georgia improved to 11-15 overall and 7-10 in Southeastern Conference action. Mississippi State fell to 10-16 overall and 5-12 in SEC play.
"These seniors have given so much to this program and their effort tonight showed a great consistency in what this program means to them," Georgia head coach Lizzy Stemke said. "I haven't looked at the numbers yet, but they played with passion tonight. They played with a true heart to leave out on our court."
Friday night's win was the final home match of the 2011 season for Georgia, and the Bulldogs honored four seniors at the match for their contributions to the program which included key performances in the victory over MSU.
Senior setter Kathleen Gates paced the offense to a 59 kills and a .310 hitting percentage by providing 44 assists to go along with five kills, seven digs and three blocks. Gates' 44 assists raised her career total to 4,598, which moves her up to third all-time in the UGA record books.
Behind Gates' lead, senior middle blocker Elizabeth Reid provided 11 kills on a .471 clip and three blocks, and fellow senior middle blocker Ann Dylla notched nine kills and also had three blocks. Aiding the defensive effort, senior Carla Tietz had six digs while also chipping in three assists.
"To go out the way that we did there is no better way to go out," Dylla said.
In addition to the strong senior performances, redshirt sophomore Kathleen Luft had a team-best 13 kills on a .303 mark, junior Briana Bahr had 12 kills on a .375 clip and sophomore Brittany Northcutt added nine kills and a team-best 12 digs.
Mississippi State had two players finish with double-digit kills as Caitlin Rance had 13 and Chanelle Baker had 12.
As a team, Georgia tied a season-best mark with nine aces while only letting Mississippi State earn one ace. Out of Georgia's nine aces, Gates, Northcutt, Luft and sophomore Allison Summers each contributed two while Reid came away with an ace on the match's final point.
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Kentucky Sweeps Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Led by a double-double effort from sophomore Whitney Billings the 18th-ranked Kentucky volleyball team tallied a 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-20) sweep of Alabama on Friday evening. Billings struck for 11 kills on a .435 hitting clip and added 12 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.
With the victory Kentucky improves to 23-4 overall and 14-2 in conference action. Alabama falls to 11-17 on the year and 4-13 against league opponents.
Billings was one of three Wildcat attackers to reach double-figures in the kills’ column. Junior Ashley Frazier led the way with 12 kills and senior Ann Armes totaled 11 on a blazing .421 clip. Senior Becky Pavan added eight kills and freshman Lauren O’Conner chipped in with five.
“I thought we terminated the ball really well tonight,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “Ashley, Ann and Whitney really led us offensively. Christine (Hartmann) did a nice job of distributing the ball again for us tonight.”
Junior Christine Hartmann continues to direct the Wildcat attack in an impressive fashion with 38 assists as the Wildcats notched a .291 attacking percentage. Hartmann also posted six kills and seven digs. Junior Stephanie Klefot tallied a match-high 17 digs in the victory to lead the way defensively.
“I thought our defense got better as the match went on, and it was really good in set three to help us close out the match,” Skinners said.
The Wildcats utilized a dominant offense performance to capture a 25-20 opening set victory. The Blue and White charted 20 kills on a sizzling .405 hitting clip with Frazier leading the way with seven hammers on a .667 percentage.
Kentucky opened the scoring with consecutive kills from Armes and Billings to lift the visitors to a lead it would never relinquish. The Wildcats stretched its lead to as many as seven at 19-12 following a kill from Frazier. Alabama pulled back to within three at 20-17, but UK closed the set on a 5-3 run highlighted by kills from O’Conner and Frazier to end the set.
UK tallied a 25-22 second set win to earn a 2-0 lead into the break. UK struck for 16 kills, but added a trio of blocks to the scoring. Four players charted three or more kills in the stanza to guide the Wildcats.
Kentucky broke loose for an early edge going ahead by three at 6-3 following consecutive kills from Frazier and Hartmann. Alabama responded and tied the score at nine. UK then earned a 9-5 run capped by a kill from O’Conner to stretch the gap to 18-14. Alabama pulled back to within one at 21-20, but the visitors did not falter and a final kill from Armes gave the Wildcats the set.
Alabama began the scoring in the third frame and stretched the swing to a four-point edge at 7-3. UK then charted an 8-0 run to capture a 12-7 lead it would not yield. In the run, Armes had three kills to lead the way for the visitors. Alabama fought back and climbed to within three at 21-18. Out of a timeout, Kentucky closed the set on a 4-2 run with Billings striking for three kills in the span including the match-winner.
The Wildcats totaled 17 kills on a .268 hitting clip in the final set. Armes led the way with five kills as UK had five players record two or more in the stanza.
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Arkansas Sweeps South Carolina
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas volleyball team knocked off South Carolina in straight sets (25-16, 25-15, 25-22) Friday evening at Barnhill Arena. The Razorbacks were paced by a trio of double-digit kill efforts from Jasmine Norton, Kelli Stipanovich and Amanda Anderson. As a team, Arkansas (18-9, 10-6 SEC) tallied a .430 hitting percentage, a figure tied for the fifth best in program history.
“We had a really good night offensively,” head coach Robert Pulliza said. “We hit .430 and that might be one of the best in school history for an SEC match. All of our attackers were over .300 and Raymariely did a really good job distributing the ball.”
Arkansas’ hitting percentage Friday against the Gamecocks is the fourth-best effort by the team in a Southeastern Conference match. Norton led the way with 14 kills while Stipanovich and Anderson posted 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Roslandy Acosta added eight kills to the offensive output. The Razorbacks committed just four attack errors in 107 attempts.
Defensively, the Razorbacks totaled 51 digs, four more than their opponents. Freshman libero Christa Alvarez led all players with a match-high 15 digs. She was followed by Raymariely Santos who had 14 digs of her own and added 34 assists to complete her ninth double-double performance of the season. Arkansas posted nine total team blocks and was led by six total blocks from Kasey Heckelman.
With her third kill of the match, Norton moved into ninth place on the program’s all-time kills list and now has 1,280 kills in her career. Stipanovich collected the 1,200th kill of her Razorback career with her first putaway of the night against South Carolina. Sitting at 12th place on Arkansas’ kills list, she now has 1,210 kills to her credit.
During a halftime ceremony, the Razorbacks recognized Melanie Davis (1994-96) and Krystal Osborne (1994-97) for their roles as trailblazers for Arkansas volleyball. Osborne, who was in attendance for the ceremony, still holds the program record with 2,185 kills during her career.
In the opening set, Arkansas won the first four points of the match to grab early control. Later, the team turned a two-point lead into a 15-7 advantage with the help of a six-point surge that was capped by a tandem block from Acosta and Anderson. The Razorbacks’ lead reached double digits, 21-11, on a setting error by South Carolina. On set point, Santos picked up a kill to secure the opener in favor of Arkansas, 25-16.
South Carolina (12-14, 3-13 SEC) won five of the first seven points in the second set but the Razorbacks used a 7-0 run to go ahead. The home team cushioned its lead and led, 20-13, after a hitting error from its opponent. Arkansas won the final three points of the game including a kill from Norton to secure the win the set, 25-15.
The two teams traded points to start game three but the Gamecocks won four of five points to take an 11-8 lead and force an Arkansas timeout. The Razorbacks recovered to even the score at 13-all. From that point, the score was tied eight more times in the match. With a 22-22 tally on the scoreboard, Arkansas got consecutive kills from Santos, Stipanovich and Norton, respectively, to close out the match.
“We played very well tonight but Florida is the No. 19 team in the country so we’ll have to bring our ‘A’ game,” Pulliza said.
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Gators Win In Baton Rouge
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Sophomore middle blocker Chloe Mann (Gainesville, Fla.) had the performance of a lifetime, hitting .900 with 18 kills on 20 errorless swings to record the second-highest hitting percentage in NCAA history when the attacker has 20 or more swings. Mann’s offensive showcase led the No. 19 Gators to a 3-1 victory over the LSU Tigers (23-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-12) on Friday evening at the Maravich Center.
Mann also contributed five blocks on the evening for a career-high 20.5 points to lead all players. The Gainesville native's hitting performance was the best since All-American Benavia Jenkins (.923, 12-0-13, vs. UCF on 12/6/02). Her 20.5 points rank most all-time at Florida for a middle blocker in a single game and her 18 kills are the most-ever for a middle blocker at Florida.
"From set one to set four, she (Chloe) was the difference," Florida head coach Mary Wise said. "Chloe Mann was the best player on the court today."
Senior outside hitter Stephanie Ferrell (Los Angeles, Calif.) had 10 kills against LSU, while junior right-side hitter Tangerine Wiggs (Seattle, Wash.) posted nine kills and a match-high six blocks against the Tigers. Wiggs registered 12.0 points on the evening while Ferrell posted 11.5.
Defensively, Florida was paced by redshirt freshman libero Taylor Unroe (Muncie, Ind.) with a match-high 22 digs and senior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) was close behind with a career-high 20 digs and added three service aces.
The Gators rebounded from falling in the first set, 23-25, to hold the Tigers to an average of 16 points in the final three sets and take the match, 3-1. Florida has held LSU to an average of 10 points in the final sets of their last two matches. The Gators hit .303 on the evening, marking the 15th match of the season that Florida has hit above .300. UF is the most efficient hitting team in the nation and the Orange and Blue are undefeated (15-0) when hitting above a .300 clip.
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Lady Vols Defeat Ole Miss In Oxford
OXFORD, Miss. - Just like the first time the two teams met in Knoxville on Oct. 9, the No. 15 University of Tennessee Lady Vol volleyball team gutted out a five set win versus Ole Miss, this time on the road, 26-24, 26-28, 25-23, 17-25, 15-13, on Friday evening at the Gillom Sports Center in Oxford, Miss.
“Mississippi played a great match and I’m proud of our players, who really grinded it out and worked through a tough match,” Lady Vol head coach Rob Patrick said. “We knew it was going to be tough. Mississippi just presents a bad matchup for us and they played great volleyball. We can win matches in a lot of different ways and today our defense wasn’t what it needed to be, but our offense was able to carry us through.”
The Lady Vol outside hitters filled up that stat sheet, as sophomore Kelsey Robinson, junior Leslie Cikra and freshman Tiffany Baker all had 18 or more kills on the night.
Robinson registered a match high 24 kills, while digging up 13 balls to notch her conference leading 18th double-double on the year. By tallying 24 blasts, she now has 11 matches with 20 or more kills, as in 10 of those matches she has also recorded a double-double.
Cikra was one kill shy of tying a career-high, as she blasted a season-high 19. She also hit a team high .400, connecting on 19 of her 35 swings, with just five errors. Baker also was just one kill shy of tying a career-high, as the freshman had 18 versus the Rebels.
Tennessee also had three players’ record double digits in digs, as joining Robinson were sophomore Ellen Mullins and freshman Nikki Brice. Mullns had a team best 18 digs, while Brice added 12 of her own.
Mary Pollmiller, a freshman, set a new career-high in assists, as she dished out 69 helpers. That mark was 10 more than her previous best of 59, as she guided the offense to a season-high 79 kills.
“Mary Pollmiller really did a nice job of running the offense at an efficient pace that allowed us to get enough kills to keep us in the match,” Patrick said. “Our outside hitters, Kelsey Robinson, Tiffany Baker and Leslie Cikra did a tremendous job of getting kills for us when we needed them at critical times.”
After Tennessee won the first and third sets and Ole Miss grabbed set numbers two and four, it all came down to the fifth set. The final frame was tightly contested, just like the entire match.
In the fifth set, Tennessee grabbed a 2-1 lead after a kill and an ace by Robinson, but Ole Miss took back the lead, 4-3. Tennessee would use a kill from Baker, an ace by Brice and a Mississippi attack error to reclaim the lead, 6-4, and never look back.
Back-to-back kills from Robinson and Baker gave extended UT’s advantage to three, 8-5. The Rebels would cut their deficit to one twice, 8-7 and 9-8, but an Ole Miss serve into the net and a Pollmiller kill gave Tennessee two point leads at 9-7 and 10-8.
With the score even at 10, an Ole Miss serve that sailed long and two kills from Baker made the score 13-10. Another Baker kill made the score 14-11, but Ole Miss would score the next two. Up a point, 14-13, a kill from Cikra gave Tennessee a sigh of relief and win number 23 on the season.
The Rebels led for most of the early going in the opening set, as UT got within two twice, before Ole Miss took a four-point lead, 9-5. A block from junior DeeDee Harrison and Pollmiller, plus a Harrison kill got UT to within two, 9-7.
Down three, 12-9, the Big Orange would score five of the next six points to take its first lead of the match at 14-13. During that stretch, Cikra and freshman Shealyn Kolosky had kills, Brice had a service ace and back-to-back kills from Robinson tied the match, than gave UT the lead.
The frame would again be tied at 14 and 16 before a Robinson kill and a block from Pollmiller and Kolosky gave Tennessee a two-point advantage, 16-14. OM scored the next three to regain the lead, 17-16, but a Harrison kill and three Rebel attack errors gave Tennessee a 20-18 lead.
Ole Miss would again rally, scoring five of the next six to grab a 23-21 lead and force Tennessee to take a timeout. The Big Orange responded in a big way, as it closed the set out on a 5-1 run to win the frame, 26-24. In that late run, Baker had three kills, while an OM attack that went long ended the set.
The Lady Vols outhit the Rebels .324-.205, as Robinson led the way with six kills, while Kolosky, Baker and Harrison all had three.
Despite outhitting (.473-.342) and out-digging (13-10) the Rebels, the Lady Vols dropped the second set, 26-28. In the frame, Cikra had six kills, while hitting at a clip of .857, as she connected on six of her seven swings.
The two squads traded the first 10 points of the second set, before a kill from Robinson followed a Baker blast, giving UT a 6-5 advantage. The match would be tied at points six through 12, before the Rebels scored four straight to take a 16-12 lead.
Tennessee got back to within two, as a Baker kill and an OM attack error made the score 16-14. The Rebels rattled off three straight points to go up five, 19-14. Tennessee would rally, scoring five of the next six off of two Robinson kills, a kill by Kolosky and an Ole Miss miscue, makinig the score 20-19.
The Lady Vols would tie up the match at 21, 22 and 23 before OM would serve for the set, up 24-23. The Orange and White would fight off three set points, 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25, but after a Harrison kill knotted the set up at 26, Ole Miss would score the final two points to win the set, 28-26.
After Tennessee grabbed a quick 2-1 lead in the third set, Ole Miss scored four straight to take a 5-2 advantage. An attack error by Ole Miss and a kill from Robinson made the score 8-8, but Ole Miss quickly reclaimed the lead, 10-8.
Down three, 13-10, Tennessee scored four of five off of two Cikra kills, a smash from Baker and an Ole Miss miscue to even the score at 14. The Rebels would lead until a kill off the arm of Robinson and a block from Cikra and Harrison made the score 18-18.
Down a point, 19-20, two Cikra kills and a service error gave UT its first lead of the set, 22-20. The Lady Vols extended their lead to three, 24-21, but Ole Miss made things interesting, scoring two straight to cut the UT advantage to one, 24-23. Baker ended the Rebels’ hopes of a comeback, as slammed a kill to give UT the third set, 25-23, and a give the Orange and White a 2-1 lead in the match.
Down 2-0 in the fourth set, kills from Baker, Cikra and Robinson gave Tennessee a 3-2 advantage, which would be the only advantage for UT in the set.
Ole Miss would score the next five to take a 7-3 lead. The Orange and White could never catch up, getting as close as two, 9-7, after a Cikra kill.
With the score at 11-7 in favor of OM, the squads traded the next eight points, which made the score 15-11. Ole Miss would push the lead to six, 17-11, and seven, 21-14, which forced UT to call timeout. Ole Miss ended the set by scoring the final two points, 25-17, as it also evened up the match at two.