University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Troy
Bulldogs Go 1-1 To Open UAB/Samford Invitational
08.26.2011 | Women's Volleyball
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Playing in two matches to start the 2011 season the UNC Asheville volleyball team split a pair of contests against Troy University and Samford University in the opening round of the UAB/Samford Invitational, earning a 3-2 victory over Troy before falling to Samford 3-0.
"We did a good job considering it's the beginning of the season but we still have a lot of work to do," said Asheville head coach Frederico Santos. "We need to work to improve every week and we're working to try to get the team to play together. Even though we're returning a lot of players from last year not everybody is playing in the same position so we've got to get players used to their new positions."
In their first match of the day the Bulldogs were down two sets to one against a scrappy Troy team, only to come from behind to earn a 3-2 (26-24, 23-25, 19-25, 27-25, 18-16) victory over the Trojans. Cindi Miller posted 21 kills the first match of her senior year while Holly Shelton contributed 17 kills to the Asheville total.
Newcomer Anna Moore posted 15 kills for the Bulldogs while senior setter Hallie Morse posted 62 assists directing the Asheville offense. Libero Alex Stewart recorded 25 digs on defense with Morse tallying a team-high five blocks (one solo).
Kayla Pickart led the Trojans offensively with 20 kills with teammates Breanna Culity (17) and Devin Von Pingel (16) reaching double digit kills as well. Alexandra Alexander tallied 64 assists and Courtney Cohen posted 22 digs for Troy in the loss.
The Bulldogs faced host Samford in their second match of the day, falling to Bulldogs of the Southern Conference 3-0 (25-11, 25-15, 25-18). Moore led all Asheville Bulldogs with six kills as the Blue & White combined for only 20 team kills in the match.
Samford was led by Elizabeth Neisler who tallied 16 kills on the night with teammate Lauren Hutchinson converting 12 kills to help lead the Bulldogs to the win. Casey Garvey posted 39 assists in directing the Samford offense to a .429 hitting percentage as a team.
Asheville will close out the 2011 UAB/Samford Invitational on Saturday afternoon when the Bulldogs take on the Blazers of UAB in match set for 2 p.m. CST.
