Charleston, S.C. Rachel Sanders registered 11 kills and Ashley Winter led the defensive effort with 14 digs but The Citadel was unable to sweep the season series with Appalachian State as the Mountaineers won, 3-0, on Senior Night in McAlister Field House Saturday. Set scores were 25-23, 25-13 and 28-26.
The Citadel (8-23, 1-16 Southern) had three girls with double-digit digs in the match as Tatum Jestila and Emily Hill each recorded 11 digs. Sanders 11 kills led the Bulldogs offensively, as did her .194 hitting percentage.
Appalachian State (7-24, 3-14 SoCon) was led by Maya Jechorek's 14 kills and by Caroline Sedon's .333 hitting percentage. Cassie Engelgau's 14 digs led the Mountaineer defensive effort.
Saturday night's match was dubbed “Senior Night” as The Citadel honored the team's three seniors Emily Hill, Rachel Sanders and Ashley Winter prior to the match.
“What an emotional game,” said head coach Carolyn Geiger. “We honored our seniors and all they have done for our program tonight. Appalachian played all out, which is something we expected after beating them on their home turf. I feel at times they opened the door for us to win but unfortunately we made some critical mistakes.”
“We switched things up in the third set and I thought we responded well to keep the score tight. All in all, we are playing more competitively. If we can limit our mistakes in serve receive, we can turn these tough, well fought matches into wins.”
The Appalachian State victory prevented a Bulldog sweep of the Mountaineers this season in what would have been a first for The Citadel program. The Bulldogs' 3-1 win over Appalachian State in Boone on Oct. 24 was the program's first victory over ASU.
Appalachian edged out a closely contested first set by a 25-23 margin. Sanders led all hitters with five kills in the set while Jechorek and Becca Norris each recorded four kills in the set for ASU. The set recorded 15 tie scores and six lead changes, including three ties and two lead changes in the final six points. Back-to-back attack errors by Jessica Maas and Sanders allowed Appalachian to get by with the 25-23 victory.
The Mountaineers dominated the second set, hitting .556 and recording 17 kills in the 25-13 victory. Blaine McAllister recorded three of the Bulldogs' nine kills in the set as The Citadel hit .172 in the second frame.
Nine tie scores and four lead changes highlighted a close final set that required extra points to complete. Facing match point at 25-24, Tatum Jestila put down a kill to tie the set at 25-25. Four of the set's nine tie scores came in the last eight points. Jechorek closed out the set for the Mountaineers with a kills to give ASU the 27-26 lead and a service ace on match point to clinch the victory for Appalachian. Sanders led The Citadel with four kills while Hill added nine assists and nine digs in the set.
The Citadel returns to action in McAlister Field House for the final match of the regular season , hosting Western Carolina at 2 p.m. For complete coverage of Bulldog Volleyball, visit the official home of The Citadel Athletics at CitadelSports.com.
