September 12th - For the second time in as many matches, Greenville needed five games to pick up a victory as they defeated College of Pharmacy 15-13, 15-8, 10-15, 8-15, 15-11 in their home opener. Just like at Blackburn last Thursday, the Lady Panthers took a 2-0 lead early before dropping games three and four and then taking a rally-scored game five. Despite a somewhat shaky match, Greenville was still able to come away victorious. "It's good to play less than your best and still be able to get a win," remarked Coach Rick McPeak. "I think that shows how good we can really be."
The match started slowly for the Panthers as they fell behind by a score of 13-8 late in game one, but they rallied to score the final seven points in the game for a wild 15-13 game one win in front of a noisy home crowd. Greenville was led by freshmen outside hitters Michea McKay and Sarah Swanson in the first game with Swanson getting 5 kills and McKay adding 4. While game one was led by the outside hitters, game two belonged to senior middle hitter Julia Wheeler as she led Greenville to the 15-8 win. Wheeler tallied 6 kills on only 8 attempts in the game for a hitting percentage of .750.
Game three was a rough one for Greenville as they fell behind early and never recovered and fell 10-15. Wheeler had another huge game for G.C. with 5 more kills in only 8 attempts. Over the two game span, Wheeler hit .688 with 11 kills. Game four was more of the same as some sloppy play helped give College of Pharmacy an 11-2 lead, but Greenville stormed back to cut the lead to 11-8. Despite a great comeback effort, however, G.C. fell in game four 8-15. The two poor games forced Greenville into another rally scored fifth game.
Early in game five, it looked like Greenville would be unable to regroup as they fell behind by a very difficult 6-1 score. After a timeout, the Lady Panthers seemed reenergized as they ran off six straight points to take a 7-6 lead. Greenville would score 14 of the last 19 points in the game to roll to the 15-11 win and improve their record to 2-1 on the season in another marathon match. "There were times when we played tentatively tonight and that hurt us," added McPeak. "Our serve receive was inconsistent tonight and we were never able to get into a rhythm, but we were still able to get the win."
Senior midde hitter Julia Wheeler dominated the middle of the court all night for Greenville as she tallied 15 kills on 27 attempts and had only 2 errors (.481). Wheeler also added a pair of solo blocks and a pair of block assists. "No doubt that Julia was our leader tonight," said McPeak. "She gave us a spark and carried our offense all night." As a team, Greenville hit only .134 and had 10 serving errors on the night, but the only statistic that matters is another win. "Like any young team, we have had some inconsistency early in the year," remarked Assistant Coach Tom Ackerman. "But by the end of this season once we get some experience we will be a very tough team to beat."
"I can't remember the last time
a Greenville team was over .500," added McPeak. "I'm
excited to see where this team can go this season." Greenville
will look to continue their strong start with a home match against
Webster on Wednesday at 7:00.
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SET |
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DEF. | BLOCK |
| # |
. . Name |
G | K | E | TA | PCT. | A | TA | SA | SE | REC/E | DIGS | BS | BA |
| 15 | M. Mckay . . . . . | 5 | 13 | 8 | 40 | .125 | 0 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 33-9 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | S. Swanson . . . | 5 | 11 | 6 | 33 | .152 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 38-4 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | J. Wheeler . . . | 5 | 15 | 2 | 27 | .481 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | M.Vandiver . . . | 5 | 3 | 7 | 23 | -.174 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | L. Hairrell. . . . | 5 | 6 | 8 | 25 | -.080 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | H. Caddell . . . . | 5 | 4 | 0 | 9 | .444 | 30 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | J. Hart . . . . . . | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | R. Temples. . . . | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 1-0 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | V. Watson . . . . | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | K. Harms . . . . . | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | M. McDaniels. . | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 5 | 52 | 31 | 157 | .134 | 33 | 96 | 4 | 10 | 72-13 | 60 | 4 | 6 |
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