By Zack Ciboth, Sports Editor
For the second straight season the UNC Pembroke women’s volleyball team will find themselves in the championship match of the Conference Carolinas tournament. A hard fought five set thriller with Mount Olive in the semifinals kept the Braves alive as they took the down the Trojans 3-2 (25-21, 25-17, 19-25, 21-25, 15-13).
“Going up 2-0 against a team you’ve played three times, we’ve beaten them twice in the regular season which wasn’t east and we knew that coming in that it was going to be a warzone and that’s exactly what it was and just our composure in the fifth set even when it was tied no one had their head down,” UNCP coach Jaleesa Harper said. “That’s a great team (Mount Olive) they were number one for a reason and (Emma Celentano) got coach of the year for a reason and I’m happy that we are advancing tomorrow.
Tied 2-2 the Braves and Trojans were battling for a spot in the championship match. The Braves gained the early lead 7-4 but the Trojans battled their way back in as both sides traded point for point and as we sit tied 13-13 a kill by Vanja Przulj and an ace to follow gave UNCP the two points needed to win the set and the match.
At the start of the match’s opening set, the Trojans quickly gained a 5-1 lead over the Braves that was erased as a scoring run by UNCP gave them the lead 8-5. The Braves continued to build up to their lead and despite the Trojans finding themselves back in the set the Braves finished things off with a 25-21 set one win.
The second set saw the Trojans lead early to start things off but like the first set the Braves quickly fought back and gained the advantage. An 8-0 run by the Braves seemed to seal things in the second set as they took the 2-0 match lead with a 25-17 set win. The third set was in favor of the Trojans again but this time it stayed that way despite UNCP keeping it tight the Trojans ended things on an 8-1 lead to stay alive in the match.
The Braves got things going in the fourth set jumping out to a 10-5 lead and even extending it out halfway through the set with Mount Olive keeping it close and all took was an 8-0 run to give the Trojans the lead and despite UNCP cutting the deficit to 23-20 the Trojans finished things off to force that deciding set.
Katie Pressley led the way for the Braves, dishing out 51 assists, 15 digs and once ace. Przulj finished the night with 22 kills, two assists, 26 digs and three aces. Abby Peduzzi followed with 16 kills of her own. Katelynn Swain recorded 11 kills and four blocks in the match. Kyleigh Coghlan had two assists to go along with 14 digs.
Rounding out the scoring for the Braves was Emma Fraidenburg and Ruby Countryman with five blocks each and Tyler Patterson with two aces.
“It starts with a pass, it always starts with the first contact we noticed that they were serving very aggressively, they were swinging hard and that just opens the offense so that we can reverse the flow and open our hitters one on one. (Vanja) is an amazing player. She is always our hot hitter, but we have other people on the team that can step up, Abby, Ruby, Emma, and everybody just steps up,” Pressley said.
Harper will get set to coach in her first Conference Carolinas Championship as the head coach of the Braves. She was an assistant last season when the Braves claimed the title.
“It’s a blessing we talked about taking it one day at a time and with hopes that we would be back in the same position, and I have a great group they make it easy on me and I’m just proud of how we played tonight,” Harper said.
The Braves will face Emmanuel in a rematch of the 2022 championship match. First serve is set for 3 p.m. at the North Charleston Athletic Center in North Charleston, S.C.