By Zack Ciboth, Sports Editor
The UNC Pembroke volleyball team took down the Francis Marion Patriots in a huge Conference Carolina matchup . It was part two of the Battle of I-95 and the Braves took the match 3-1 (25-20,25-23,26-28,25-16) avenging a loss to the Patriots earlier this season. With the win the Braves extend their winning streak to three straight.
I’m happy obviously its always a battle when we play Francis Marion just by being our rival we’ve been waiting for this game just because we lost in four at their place and the game was really tight and close,” UNCP coach Jaleesa Harper said. ” Preparation and confidence was key and they came out right way and just the will to win.”
The first set saw the Braves start hot jumping out to an early 5-2 advantage and controlling the pace of the match with the Patriots keeping it neck and neck. A kill from Vanja Przulj helped the Braves keep the lead and despite a Patriots comeback the. Braves held on to take the first set 25-20.
The second set saw UNCP continue their fast starts leading 8-2 and looked like they were going to run away with the set but the Patriots came back and tied the set at 23-23 but Ruby Countryman had a pair of kills to end the set for the Braves 25-23. The Brave were looking to close out the match with a sweep over their rivals but the Patriots did not want things to end early as a scoring surge after a back and forth set saw FMU claim it 28-26.
The Patriots this time started off fast but the Braves quickly erased that deficit and went on a scoring run of their own to take a 16-11 lead and eventually taking the set and the match 25-16 which was the largest set claimed by the Braves to secure the win at home.
I challenged them in between and how are we going to respond and they came out guns and blazing and scrappy defense and I couldn’t be more proud of them this was a good win for us tonight,” Harper.
Przulj recored 18 kills and one ace on the night for the Braves, Emma Fraidenburg followed with 15 kills and two blocks at the net, Countryman finished the night with 13 kills and four blocks and Abby Peduzzi had nine kills on the night.
Katie Pressley had herself a record breaking night breaking a school record in assist with 57 on the night to claim the new record with 2,639 assist breaking the previous recored of 2,609 held by Beth Peterson in the 1994-95 season.
“Yeah I mean it’s really exciting just seeing the kind of what the program has brought me and seeing that you know freshman year was a covid year and seeing the adversity we went through with that last year didn’t even end up being a setter I was a Libero so just seeing the adversity that I face.” Pressley said.
As the regular season comes to a close over the next couple of weeks the Braves (16-13, 10-5 CC) will host their senior day on Saturday at 2 p.m when they welcome the Barton Bulldogs (8-15, 4-10 CC) to town for a Conference Carolinas matchup.