Lander Sweeps Augusta State; Advances to Championship Game

GREENWOOD, S.C. -- Lander moved into the championship game of the 2007 PBC Volleyball tournament with a 3-0 semifinal win over Augusta State on Friday evening in Greenwood. The Bearcats (23-9) hit .311 to win their first-ever PBC tournament game and make their first championship appearance. Game scores were 30-24, 30-15, 30-28.

Kerri Sorensen led four Lander players who reached double-figure kills with 14. Andrea Griffin added 12 and eight blocks while Kay Stewart had 11 kills and five blocks. Ashley Ferry had 10 kills while Melissa Trippany had 17 digs and Candace LaRocca 48 assists. As a team, Lander had 13 total blocks to ASU’s two and held the Lady Jaguars to a .124 hitting average.

Jessica Howard led ASU (17-19) with 13 kills while Amy Hunt had 12. Rachel Dyer had 11 digs and Jessica Lowes 31 assists also for ASU.

Lander started the opening game on fire, racing to a 13-4 lead. A Lander kill by Griffin put the margin at 15-6 before ASU went on an 11-5 run to trim that lead to two, keyed by three kills from Hunt. With the score 22-20, Lander got two more kills from Griffin as part of a 4-0 run to put the game out of reach. Stewart and Sorensen had kills for the final points 30-24. Lander collected 22 kills and hit .364 in the opening frame.

Augusta State won the first four points of the second game and were up 6-2 before Lander responded with a 13-3 run and cruised to the 30-15 win, taking 13 of the final 16 points.

ASU took the early lead again in game three and were up 9-6 following a Howard kill before the Bearcats got in gear with three straight points, two of them on solo blocks from Griffin. The score was tied at 13 when Lander ran off four straight points, three of them on the serve of Griffin. ASU responded with kills from Meyer and Howard to tie the game again at 19. Tied at 27, Lander got two straight points on ASU errors then got the game-winner on a block by LaRocca and Griffin.

Lander will face the winner of the USC Aiken/UNC Pembroke semifinal game in the championship on Sunday at 2:00 in Finis Horne Arena.

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