AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken volleyball team earned a split on the final day of the USC Aiken Invitational. The squad fell to Palm Beach Atlantic 3-0 before rebounding to sweep Newberry by a 3-0 count.
The Pacers are now 6-2 overall.
Game scores for PBA were 12-25, 19-25 and 16-25.
Ashley Diedrich shared match-high honors with nine kills while slamming home a .304 attack percentage.
Sheila Walsh dished out 18 assists while Amanda Balogna added seven. Defensively,
Monica Cardona posted 14 digs while
Katie Toman and
Shawn Hotson added nine and seven, respectively.
At the net,
Aly Johnson blocked three shots while
Brittany Faulkner added two block assists.
Hannah Tierney accounted for the lone solo block in the match.
In the final match of the tournament, USC Aiken bested the Wolves by scores of 25-16, 25-15 and 25-22.
Diedrich posted a match-high 10 kills while
Taylor Stratton added nine. Hotson and Johnson tallied seven and six, respectively. Walsh dished out 35 of the team's 38 assists. Tierney sliced through the defense with four aces while Cardona, Diedrich, Toman and Walsh each had one.
Hotson led everyone with a match-best 14 digs while Cardona and Diedrich accounted for eight apiece. At the net, Tierney slammed home three block assists and Walsh tallied one.
The Pacers hit .261 by posting 40 kills to just 16 errors while limiting the Wolves to a mere .052 attack percentage with 29 kills and 24 errors. Head coach
Glenn Cox's team had eight aces to three by Newberry. The squad also totaled 42 digs to 35 by the visitors.
After being tied at eight in the early going, a run by the Pacers gave the squad a four-point edge. During the spurt, Diedrich had a kill and Cardona had an ace. The Wolves pulled within two, but Stratton's kill and Walsh's ace extended the lead. With the score at 19-16, the Wolves had two attack errors before Walsh and Johnson combined for a block. Another attack error by Newberry was followed with a kill from Johnson and one from Hotson, ending the first set.
In the second stanza, USC Aiken trailed 2-1, but an attack error put the ball in Tierney's hands. She dropped back to serve and picked the defense apart, registering three straight aces and four in all during a run that gave the Pacers an 8-2 edge.
Newberry pulled within three, but it was as close as the team would get. Stratton and Hotson posted back-to-back kills for a 17-12 edge. Up 17-13, Diedrich and Hotson slammed home passes for kills and a ball handling error by the Wolves pushed the lead to 20-13. USC Aiken cruised to the 25-15 win in the second frame.
In what turned out to be the final set of the match, the teams battled back-and-forth for much of the time. Cox's squad found itself trailing 22-21, but Diedrich and Tierney combined for a block to even the score. Toman took the ball on the side-out and promptly recorded an ace, giving the Pacers a 23-22 lead. Tierney added a kill and an error by the Wolves ended the match.
The Pacers return to action Friday when they travel to Francis Marion in a 7 p.m., match.
All-Tournament Team
First Team
Becca Acevedo – Palm Beach Atlantic
Emma Ballantyne – Palm Beach Atlantic
Shannon Gillespie – Anderson
Rachel Holehouse – Palm Beach Atlantic
Jessica King - Newberry
Sheila Walsh – USC Aiken
Second Team
Katie Ballantyne – Palm Beach Atlantic
Monica Cardona – USC Aiken
Jariliz Cotte – Lees McRae
Ashley Diedrich – USC Aiken
Hailey Pittman – Anderson
Alexzandra Reed – Francis Marion
