University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Elon
Benorden Earns All-Tournament; Bulldogs Spilt Again
08.29.2009 | Women's Volleyball
Elon went a perfect 4-0 on the tournament taking the first match of the day 27-25, 25-21, 25-27, 25-15. The Phoenix used a balanced attack placing three players in double figures in kills led by Sarah Schermerhorn who had 14 kills. Schermerhorn was also named to the All-Tournament Team. Tournament MVP Traci Stewart had nine kills and eight digs against UNC Asheville.
The Bulldogs were led by Lauren Ficker's 15 kills. Benorden added 13 kills and seven digs while Raquel Miotto had 17 digs and Bridgett Holliday added 10 digs.
"We just made too many mistakes against Elon," said Asheville head coach Julie Torbett. "We had 34 attack errors and some of those were in the opening set which was extremely close. We had leads in each set but give Elon credit for finishing the set."
Asheville dropped the first two sets to the Citadel before storming back behind Benorden to take the match in five sets 23-25, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-7. The Bulldogs had 12 kills and just one error in the decisive fifth set. Asheville played 14 five set matches last season and posted eight victories in those 14 matches.
"We have a lot of confidence in the fifth set," said Torbett. "We served aggressively all weekend and it got us in trouble early in the match but we fought back and once we got to the fifth set we knew we were in great condition. Cally (Geiger) has done a great job coaching the Citadel and it is a much improved program."
Ficker had 12 kills and Chelsie Kenley added 12 kills while hitting .407 in the match. Holly Shelton had nine kills while hitting .353 in the match. Miotto had 18 more digs giving her 69 for the weekend. She now has 2,039 career digs; 140 shy of the UNC Asheville and Big South career record.
Tatum Jestila had 12 kills and 13 digs in the match as she was named to the All-Tournament Team. Ashley Jone (Georgia State), Megan Smith (High Point), Avaniki Campbell (North Carolina Central) and Lindsey Strucko (UNC Wilmington) also earned All-Tournament honors.
The Bulldogs will play thier first home match of 2009 on Wednesday, Sept. 2, when they host Western Carolina in a 7 p.m. match. The match can be seen live online beginning at 6:50 p.m. on the Big South Network at bigsouthsports.com.
