University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
The Citadel
Bulldogs Win Fifth Straight Match to Claim Tournament Title
09.06.2009 | Women's Volleyball
Kelsey Benorden, Rachel Guinane, and Raquel Miotto also made the All-Tournament Team as the Bulldogs (6-2) moved their winning streak to five straight matches.
In the first match of the day, Asheville defeated the Citadel (1-6) 25-17, 25-18, and 25-19. Ficker had 14 kills to lead all hitters in the match while Benorden added 10 kills and 16 digs. Miotto led all players with 19 digs. The Bulldogs hit. 333 as a team while the Citadel hit .179.
In the final match of the tournament, the Dogs defeated USC Upstate (3-4) 25-11, 25-15, 25-9. Ficker had 12 kills and hit .478. Benorden led all players with 14 kills adding 12 digs while hitting .462. She recorded double-doubles in all three tournament matches and now has six double-doubles on the season.
Miotto added 16 digs giving her 35 digs in the two matches. She is now 64 digs shy of the Big South Conference and UNC Asheville school record for career digs.
"I thought we played our most complete matches today," said head coach Julie Torbett. "We hit a high percentage in both matches, we blocked well, we served tough, and we played good defense. I am very proud of the way we played this weekend. Lauren (Ficker) was terrific in the middle and she opened up the outside for Kelsey (Benorden). Rachel (Guinane) did a great job of distributing the ball. I thought we played at a high level all weekend."
The Bulldogs had nine service aces against the Citadel and five more against Upstate. Asheville hit an amazing .459 against the Spartans while Upstate was held to a .000 attack percentage. The 35 total points allowed in the three sets where the fewest the Bulldogs have allowed in a match since the NCAA began playing sets to 25 points.
For the tournament, Ficker had 40 kills, just eight errors, on 79 swings for an impressive .405 attack percentage. Benorden hit .346 (36-8-81) on the weekend as the Bulldogs hit over .300 as a team in all three matches.
The Bulldogs will be off until Friday, Sept. 11, when they face Savannah State and East Carolina at the Winston-Salem State Tournament. The Savannah State match is set to begin at 1 p.m.
