By Zack Ciboth, Sports Editor
The UNC Pembroke volleyball team picked up a big senior day against Conference Carolinas Barton Bulldogs at home on Saturday afternoon. The Braves started off strong but found themselves battling in the late sets as they held off the Bulldogs for the 3-0 win (25-18,25-22,25-21).
” Today was great I loved the energy that the girls came in with and obviously it’s always great to win on senior day, to honor our seniors and the girls were just excited and I think everyone wanted to play for them and that showed throughout the match today even fighting back in that third set to finish out the sweep so I’m just proud of the way that the team played today,” UNCP coach Jaleesa Harper said.
The Braves started off fast jumping out too early and a 7-0 lead to pour into the lead. Barton found themselves back in this one cutting the Braves lead down to 14-13. A 12-4 run capped off thing for the Braves as they took the first set 25-18.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 5-0 run which was quickly erased by the Braves. A ace by Katelynn Swain tied the set at 12-12 but the Bulldogs took the lead again after an another scoring run. The Braves trailed 20-18 and used a scoring run to claim the set 25-22.
Another early lead for the Bulldogs saw them control the third set 14-8 but the Braves rallied to take the lead late with a scoring run and took the lead 22-20 and battled Barton to the end taking there set 25-21 after taking final three of the four points of the set.
The Braves are now on a four game win streak as the season is coming to a close.
” We talk about it all the time so just the team building stages like we know its time to perform we that these last few games all being in our division that they’re super important for our rankings for kpi for our division, UNCP senior Katie Pressley said. ” We just really want to finish strong so I think we all have that fire and we’re all coming together and play clean sets to get these dubs.”
Vanja Przulj led the way with 15 kills, 16 digs, Ruby Countryman had 12 kills, one block, Pressley recored 38 assist and Hope Trubyfill had two service aces to finish off the stat line for the seniors.
Ruby Countryman has 12 kills, and one block on the afternoon, Kyleigh Coghlan had one assist, 10 digs and Tyler Patterson had three aces for the Braves in the win.
The Braves will wrap up the regular season tonight when they hit the road to take on Mount Olive in a Conference Carolina battle. First serve is set for 6 p.m.
” We love playing Mount Olive, it’s always a battle and we always show up ready to play so it’s going to be a great match at their place, they usually have a lot of fans there too but I think we’re going to play into that in the right way and hopefully finish the season strong,” Harper said.