GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College’s volleyball team dropped a pair of matches Saturday in a tri-match with visiting Shenandoah University and Piedmont College. The Hornets claimed an Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) decision in the day’s first match, 25-21, 25-16, 32-30. Piedmont rallied for a 3-2 win in the day’s final match, 22-25, 22-25, 25-13, 25-20, 15-10. Piedmont knocked off Shenandoah, 25-19, 25-15, 25-21.
The Hornets (8-9, 2-3 ODAC) erased an early 5-1 deficit in the first set and outscored the Quakers (6-10, 2-3 ODAC), 11-3, in the middle of the set to pull out the win. Shenandoah kept the pressure up in the second set and grabbed an early 7-1 lead. The Hornets hit a blistering .519 as a team in the second set. The third set was most entertaining as the Quakers rallied from a 17-11 deficit and tied the match at 24-24. Shenandoah had three match points before Ashleigh Tanis put a ball away at the net to clinch the win on the fourth. The Quakers had three set points in the third frame.
Rachel Gross and Samantha Schambach shared match-high honors with 10 kills apiece for Shenandoah. Tanis finished with eight kills on .438 hitting and setter Jasmine Callahan was solid with 30 assists, eight digs, four kills and a block. Guilford’s Malikah French led the Quakers with nine kills and two blocks. Brittany Freeman chipped in with eight kills and 12 digs. Kelsey Ruehling also had eight putaways, plus seven digs and two service aces.
After Piedmont defeated Shenandoah in the day’s middle match, Guilford took the first two sets off the Lions (15-1) by matching 25-22 counts. The Lions hit .419 as a team in the third set to stay in the match and held off a late Quakers rally in the fourth to set up the deciding fifth set. Piedmont’s Taylor Cramsey came alive in the final set and put away five of her 10 kills in the stanza. She hit .444 in the frame, which helped the Lions hit .385 as a team. Cramsey had three kills during a 6-1 Piedmont run that broke open a 4-4 game and carried the visitors to their 13th straight win.
Piedmont’s Ashley Fannon notched a double-double with a match-high 16 kills and 12 digs. Katelyn Dobbs had 10 kills and six blocks and Xandy Green contributed 21 assists and 13 digs. Libero Katie Faith picked up a match-best 22 digs and served up two aces.
Freeman shared match-high honors with 16 kills and also collected six digs and two blocks. French had 14 kills on .333 hitting, plus a team-high five blocks and two service aces. Ruehling chipped in six kills, 16 digs and three aces.
Coach Emily Gann’s club continues its six-match home stand Tuesday (10/1) with a league-match versus Hollins University at 6:30 p.m.