Volleyball team goes 1 for 2 on the week

The UNCG volleyball team's game against the Furman Paladins seemed destined to go down to the wire from the very outset. It eventually took five games, and beyond, before the Spartans dropped their first Southern Conference game of the year 3-2 (23-25, 25-18, 25-19, 21-25, 16-18) Friday night in Fleming Gymnasium.

Both teams traded leads in the first set with neither team gaining more than a three-point advantage before Furman (9-7, 2-1 in SoCon) took it 25-23.

UNCG was able to turn the momentum from the tough loss in the opening game to control the second one. The Spartans used back to back service aces by Catherine Hanners and several kills by Branagan Fuller to jump out to an early 7-3 lead. Furman never could mount a serious comeback in the second set and only pulled within four points before UNCG mixed Lisa Falwell and Branagan Fuller Kills, along with several Furman errors, to win the set 25-18 and tie the match at one game apiece.

Once again both teams showed how evenly matched they were, as the third set went back and forth early on. Neither team could push themselves in front of the other until the Spartans separated themselves in the middle of the set. Branagan Fuller hit a service ace that Furman's Allison West could not handle and then senior Kaitlyn Nortz had a kill that extended the UNCG lead to 15-13. After a Furman kill the Spartans rattled off four straight points including kills from Alissa Beaudway and Kayren Finney to gain a 19-14 advantage that would eventually turn into a 25-19 win.

Furman would not fold though as they scored six straight points early in the third set to take a 6-1 lead. UNCG used several Branagan Fuller kills and a service ace to storm back and tie the game at 7 before the Paladins were able to reel of two consecutive four point streaks to take a 15-9 lead. The Spartans once again rallied to keep the set interesting and pulled to within 21-24 on a Clara Tse kill before Furman was able to force a fifth and final set with a kill by Allison West.

The Spartans could not corral the momentum back to their side coming out in the fifth game and fell behind 3-6 early on. A couple of UNCG errors allowed Furman to stretch the lead as large as 6-11 before the Spartans mounted a furious comeback to keep the game alive.

With the Paladins up 10-14 and needing only one point to win the match UNCG scored four straight points behind kills from Kayren Finney and Branagan Fuller and even up the set at 14-14. Branagan Fuller would add two more kills when the Spartans were trailing to extend the match to 16-16. That would be all that the Spartans could muster in the comeback effort though as the Paladins were able to silence the otherwise raucous UNCG fans with two straight kills to take the set and match 18-16 and 3-2 respectively. Branagan Fuller led the Spartans with 25 kills and also turned in 17 digs, four behind Catherine Hanners who led the team with 21 and also had four aces in the match.

After Friday night's tough loss the Spartans had to refocus and bounce back quickly to play another conference match Saturday afternoon against the Wofford Terriers (11-7, 1-2). Thanks to strong performances from Branagan Fuller, Kayren Finney, Kaitlyn Nortz, and Caley Redden, the Spartans responded to the adversity of a five-set defeat not even 24 hours previously with a 3 set sweep (25-16, 25-17, 25-22) of Wofford.

"I was very proud of their effort today," said Coach Shawn Garus, "they had a short night after a really tough loss last night and I thought they rebounded well and looked very focused."

After posting a 25-16 win in the first game, the Spartans found tougher sledding in the second game. The teams traded points from 7-7 to 8-8 to 9-9 and 10-10 before the Spartans scored four straight points forcing the Terriers to call a timeout. But the timeout did not slow the Spartans momentum, as they built the lead to 18-11 in the next five points. Later, the Spartans let the Terriers creep back in within four to make the score 20-16. But the Spartans were able to pull the game out with a 25 -17 win after successive kills from Redden and Kimiko Naito.

Once again in the third match the Terriers hung with the Spartans and had the game tied at 12 before UNCG was able to assert themselves with three straight points. The Terriers rallied later in the set to make it 23-22. But a kill by Kayren Finney secured the Spartans sweep and boosted their record to 11-6 and 3-1 in the SoCon.

Finney and Redden powered the Spartans in the third set, Finney had 5 kills on 5 attacks in the third and Redden had 4 kills on five attacks in the set.

"Kayren Finney is a dominant force for us in the middle," said Coach Garus of his middle blocker who finished with 12 kills, five blocks, a .476 hitting percentage and only two errors for the match.

Finney credited the Spartans mental strength for their ability to bounce back from the Furman loss.

"I think that we came out really focused, and we knew that we could not lose this game today," said Finney," therefore that was our motivation to play hard and win this game."

The Spartans as a team showed no lingering fatigue from Friday night's tough loss. They were hustling after every ball, willing to sacrifice their bodies whenever necessary, and able to dig out numerous points because of it.

Fuller led all players with 32 attacks and 13 kills. Nortz finished with 16 attacks and 9 kills and Redden had 12 attacks, 8 kills, and a .500 hitting percentage. Clara Tse and Catherine Hanners led the Spartans with 12 and 11 digs respectively.

The Spartans return to action this week Wednesday night at Elon, Saturday at home in Fleming Gym against the Citadel at 2 p.m., and again at home Sunday against College of Charleston.