September 20th - The Greenville College Lady Panthers bounced back into the win column with a very strong three set match win over Lincoln Christian College 15-11, 17-15, 15-8. The win came after a rough stretch that ended in a 1-5 record. "Tonight's win was a win of the heart," remarked Rick McPeak. "After that rough stretch, it would be easy for our girls to give up, but they just refused to let this season get away from us."
The first match was a back and forth battle in which neither team was able to get a lead of more than two through most of the early action. G.C. took a 9-7 lead midway through the game only to drop four of the next five points to fall behind 10-11. An outstanding stretch of offensive production from middle hitter Julia Wheeler vaulted the Panthers past LCC for the 15-11 win. Wheeler had a team high 7 kills in the game on only 9 attacks, including kills on her first six attempts.
Game two looked like it would get away from Greenville as they fell behind 8-2 and later 12-6. Greenville simply refused to give Lincoln Christian the game as they clawed back slowly, but still found themselves trailing 14-11. After a huge sideout by Sarah Swanson, Greenville ran off three consecutive points to tie the score at 14. Lincoln Christian would take a 15-14 lead as well, but again Greenville fought off the game point and then put together three more points to take a dramatic 17-15 win. Michea McKay finished up game two with four consecutive kills to put LCC away.
Throughout the season, Greenville has struggled keeping momentum in game three, but Wednesday was a big lift for the Lady Panthers as they jumped ahead early and left no doubt that they were the better team as they cruised to a 15-8 win and a straight set victory.
"This is just a huge win for our girls," added McPeak. "We had a rough stretch of matches, but to beat a quality team like Lincoln Christian in 3 games is a big lift. Michea was huge tonight not only with her hitting, but more importantly her serve receive. That's the most overlooked part of the game, and she was nearly perfect tonight." McKay had only one receiving error in 38 attempts.
McKay was strong all night on the outside once again as she had 13 kills on 22 attempts (.409). Fellow outside hitter Sarah Swanson added 12 kills while Julia Wheeler had another nearly flawless match in the middle. Wheeler finished the night with 13 kills and only one hitting error for a hitting percentage of .571. "Julia's hitting percentage is just tremenous," added McPeak. "She is just so smart with her shots and puts so much pressure on the defense because she hardly ever makes mistakes."
Greenville will need to play another strong match on Thursday as they host Fontbonne in a conference battle at 7:00 p.m. in H.J. Long Gymnasium.
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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 . . . . . | 3 | 13 | 4 | 22 | .409 | 0 | 25 | 2 | 1 | 38-1 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | S. Swanson . . . | 3 | 12 | 7 | 31 | .161 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 24-5 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | J. Wheeler . . . | 3 | 13 | 1 | 21 | .571 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | M.Vandiver . . . | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | .143 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | H. Caddell . . . . | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | .429 | 32 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | K. Harms . . . . . | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -.167 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1-0 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 | L. Hairrell. . . . | 2 | 3 | 0 | 8 | .375 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | J. Hart . . . . . . | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | R. Temples. . . . | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | V. Watson . . . . | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | M. McDaniels. . | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 3 | 46 | 14 | 103 | .310 | 35 | 86 | 4 | 5 | 63-6 | 54 | 2 | 2 |
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