Greensboro College Volleyball Suffers Five-Set Defeat Against Averett, 3-2

Volleyball Suffers Five-Set Defeat Against Averett, 3-2
from Wes Gullett, Sports Information Director for Greensboro College

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Greensboro College volleyball team dropped a five-set heartbreaker to Averett University Thursday, 3-2.

The Pride stormed out of the gates to a 9-3 lead in Set 1. Evan Sherer electrified the capacity crowd with a big kill to open the set before Danyale Berry and Katie Clark combined for three service aces.

However, Averett did not go away as they were able to rally back to tie the set at 16 but the Pride used another 9-4 run to close out the set, 25-20, to take a 1-0 lead.

Following the big Set 1 victory, Greensboro once again established an early lead in Set 2.

With the Cougars leading 9-7, the Pride once again brought the Greensboro faithful to their feet with a 6-0 run to take a 13-9 lead. Sherer once again sparked the run for Greensboro with a kill, while also combining on a huge block with Shayla Moss to cap off the run.

Averett would then get no closer than three points for the remainder of the set as Greensboro moved their lead to 2-0 with a 25-22.

After falling behind 2-0, Averett then went on to even the match after winning the next two sets by scores of 25-16 and 25-16 to send the match into a decisive fifth set.

In the final set, Greensboro jumped out to a 2-0 lead but the Cougars ran off five straight points to take a three-point advantage.

Following the Averett run, both teams continued to battle for the remainder of the match but it was the Cougars coming out on top.

“It was a great battle tonight,” Head Coach Kathy Bullock said. “The girls are getting stronger every day and they showed the entire conference what is coming in the near future within our program. I really hope the girls learned a lesson from this match as they took one of the best teams in the conference to five sets.

“One thing I think really helped our girls battle was the energy within our crowd. I would like to thank everyone who attended for making our annual Pride Packs the Place event a great success.”

Berry finished with a team-high 14 kills, while Emily Horn chipped in 10 kills. Katie Clark recorded a match-high 36 assists and Tori Belcher paced the Greensboro defense with 26 digs.

The Pride will return to action at home Saturday when they host a USA South Athletic Conference quad-match. Greensboro will take on Salem College at 10 a.m. before squaring off with Mary Baldwin University at 4 p.m.

For more information on Greensboro College volleyball, continue to follow www.greensborocollegesports.com.