UNC Pembroke Advances Past Francis Marion 3-1

GREENWOOD, S.C. -- UNC Pembroke had three players reach double-figure kills as they eliminated Francis Marion 31-29, 30-19, 22-30, 30-17 in the first round of the PBC Tournament on Friday in Greenwood. The Lady Braves took advantage of FMU mistakes and played solid defense to get the win and advance in the tournament.

Rachel Young hit .400 for UNCP with a game-high 18 kills. Tiara Anderson and Jessica Hartley added 11 each, Hartley had seven block assists and UNCP as a team had 10 blocks. Heather Fierce had 49 assists while Andrea Laza added 25 digs.

For Francis Marion, Jessica Lombardi had 16 kills and 19 digs while Jackie Pheil and Michelle Settergren had 13 each. J enna Kaiser had 52 assists while Kelsie Deaton led the team with 21 digs.

The opening game was as close as they come with neither team able to open up more than a two-point lead at any time. Francis Marion led 29-28 when UNCP rattled off three straight points, including back-to-back kills from Young to seal the 31-29 win. The Braves hit .275 in the opening game with only four errors in their 51 attacks.

  Game two was interrupted by a 30-minute power outage as the lights in Horne Arena went suddenly dark with UNC Pembroke up 17-11. But, power was soon restored but it didn’t slow down the Lady Braves, who won seven of the next eight points when play resumed to take a 24-12 lead. UNCP went on to cruise to the 30-19 win, holding FMU to a .000 hitting percentage.

Game three belonged to FMU. The Patriots established a three point lead and kept it until, at 20-17 FMU, the Lady Braves began to cut it down when Whitney Handlin had a block and a kill on back-to-back plays to cut the lead to one. But FMU responded with a 7-2 run, including a seeing-eye kill from Jenna Kaiser that sat on top of the net before falling for a point. FMU won the game 30-22, hitting .196 but holding UNCP to .083.

The fourth game was a carbon copy of the first as neither team could gain an advantage. With the score tied at 24, UNCP won four of five points including two kills from Young. Tiara Anderson then put an ace down the line and FMU committed two attack errors to end the game 30-27.

UNC Pembroke will now advance to the semifinals where they will meet top-seeded USC Aiken on Friday at 7:00.

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