Greensboro College Volleyball Ends Season on a Good Note

The Pride played two games in Winchester, Virginia, to complete their regular season slate and split matches against conference opponents. Greensboro opened with a tough 3-1 (25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-21) loss against Meredith before bouncing back and defeating the Shenandoah Hornets 3-2 (25-22, 24-26, 25-20, 25-17, 15-7). The Pride have completed their regular season with a record of 10-23, 5-13 in USA South play.

Several players put in strong performances against the Avenging Angels as freshman Liz Widenhouse recorded 13 kills and 12 digs, sophomore Dana Sandknop dished out 32 assists and added 13 digs, freshman Morgan Hooks earned nine kills, and sophomore Danielle Simpson had 19 digs. The Pride also had 10 serving aces as a team. Despite the strong performance, Greensboro couldn’t overcome 26 kills from conference leader Cori Spade. Spade reached the 400 kill mark on the season in the match and leads the conference in both kills and kills per set.

Greensboro bounced back in their second set, however, and defeated the home-standing Hornets in five sets. After winning the first set, Shenandoah won two straight, but The Pride kept their composure and completed the victory with two consecutive victories of their own. Hooks led the team with a career high 21 kills, while Widenhouse added 17 and sophomore Katie Sylvia had 10. Sandknop dished out a match high 59 assists and three players recorded double-digit digs. Widenhouse picked up 13, sophomore Siarra Cates tallied 16, and Simpson led all players with 23.

Sandknop’s two strong matches pushed her over the 800 assist mark for the second straight season and Widenhouse finished the regular season with 315 kills. Hooks broke the 200 kill mark with 220 and Simpson finished the season with 423 digs. Cates also recorded over 300 digs for the season, while Sylvia led the team with 35 blocks.

The Pride will return to action at the USA South tournament beginning on Tuesday, November, 1st. Greensboro claimed the 8th seed in the tournament and will face #9 Mary Baldwin at 5:00 p.m. The winner of that game will play #1 Christopher Newport at 7:00 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.usasouth.net/championships/wvball/.