AUGUSTA, Ga. – The University of South Carolina Aiken volleyball team lost a hard-fought 3-2 match at Augusta Tuesday evening.
The Pacers are now 16-7 overall, including 5-3 in league play. The Jaguars improve to 18-7 overall and 5-2 against conference teams.
Alie Smith led everyone with 23 kills to go along with 17 digs.
Emily Lammers accounted for 21 kills and 21 digs while
Alisha Pitt notched 11 kills.
Caroline Foster dished out 54 assists and had 12 digs.
Defensively,
Kari Mercer led everyone with 28 digs while
Kayla Duggan had 19 in the loss.
At the net,
Cat Bodick, Duggan and
Alisha Pitt each had three total blocks.
In the first set, USC Aiken fell behind early but knotted the contest at 6-6. The Jaguars edged ahead, taking a 17-11 lead before Smith hammered home a kill. Cookey-Gam and Duggan combined for a block. After two straight errors by AU, Cookey-Gam found the court to make it 17-16. The Pacers trailed 21-20 but Duggan served up an ace. Lammers registered a kill, forcing a time-out. The teams needed extra points, but with the score tied at 28-28, the Jaguars were whistled for a ball handling error. Lammers finished the set with a thunderous kill in the 30-28 win.
After dropping the second set, USC Aiken rebounded for a hard-fought 25-22 third-set victory. Neither team could gain much of an advantage throughout the frame. USC Aiken took a 23-22 lead before Smith sliced the defense for a kill. With set point, Foster dropped back to the line and came through with an ace, netting the 25-22 victory.
Augusta won the fourth frame, forcing the deciding fifth stanza.
Similar to the rest of the match, it went down to the wire. USC Aiken trailed 10-7 before Pitt garnered back-to-back kills. Lammers accounted for a kill before a setting error gave the visitors an 11-10 lead.
Pitt made it 12-11 and another point from Pitt pushed it to 13-12 moments later. Augusta recorded a kill before USC Aiken was whistled for being in the net, giving the home team a 14-13 advantage. The Jaguars ended the match on the next play.
The Pacers return to action Friday when they host Young Harris for Senior Day starting at 6 p.m. Live stats and video will be available at PacerSports.com.
