University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Birmingham-Southern
Volleyball Sweeps Conference Opener against BSC - UNC Asheville Bulldogs Official Athletics Site
01.01.1970 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2006
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Elif Unlu had a match-high 16 kills and Alysha Greer had 12 kills to lead UNC Asheville to a 30-27, 30-21, 30-19 victory over Birmingham-Southern in the Big South opener for both teams Saturday afternoon at the Justice Center.
Unlu recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 16 kills and 10 digs. She hit .333 (16-4-36) to lead a strong outside attack for Asheville (3-12, 1-0 Big South). Greer hit .346 (12-3-26) as the two outside hitters combined for 28 of the Bulldogs 51 kills in the match. Raquel Miotto had a match-high 18 digs to lead the Bulldogs defensively.
Birmingham-Southern (3-10, 0-1 Big South) was led by Morgan Anderson with nine kills. Sarah Harris and Michelle Maciejewski each added eight kills. Alex Norten had 15 digs for the Panthers.
"This is a good win for us," said Asheville head coach Julie Torbett. "We talked all week about being 0-0 to start conference play and that this was the part of the season that really mattered. I thought we got good production out of our outsides today and our bench did a really good job when it was called upon. Playing at home in front of a great crowd defiantly helped."
The Bulldog bench answered the call in the third game. Asheville jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the final game but BSC stormed back to tie the game at 13. Emily Palma subbed in a got one of her two kills in the game to give the Bulldogs the lead back. The Panthers tied the game at 16 before Mallory Schaffert went back to serve 10-consecutive points to give Asheville a commanding 26-16 lead. Schaffert had three aces, Unlu had two kills, Ashley Wrightenberry and Kaitlyn McDaniel had a block, and BSC committed four errors during the run. Palma and Lauren Ficker who had eight kills and three blocks in the match combined for a block on match point to seal the victory.
Game one was tied at 26 before Greer had a kill to give Asheville the lead for good. Unlu had six kills including one on game point in the opening game. In the second game, it was Birmingham-Southern who jumped out to an early lead. Both teams sided out well until 14-14 when the Bulldogs went on a 9-4 run to build a 23-18 lead and then closed out the game on a 7-3 run to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
Asheville will continue Big South Conference play next weekend as it hosts Liberty on Friday (Sept. 29) at 7 p.m. and Radford on Sunday (Oct. 1) at 2 p.m. Both of those matches will be web-cast on uncabulldogs.com
