ASHEVILLE, N.C. — It was a smooth ride for Charleston Southern’s women’s volleyball team (10-6, 2-0 Big South) against conference opponent UNC Asheville (4-11, 1-1 Big South). Charleston won the first two sets (25-18, 27-25), lost the third set 15-25), then took home the win 3-1 with a fourth set victory (25-22).
Leading the offense for Charleston was Sophia Kluska with 10 kills of the team 44 total. Faith Burch had eight of them. Cara McLean had 17 and Tristin Sutton had 14 of the 37 total assists. Kluska had two serving aces. Emma Bednarek and McLean each had one.
Defensively, the Buccaneers had eight blocks with Oliwia Durka having three of those. Skylar Yates, Emily Struckmeyer and Burch had one each. Bednarek had two.
Presley Morris led the Buccaneers in defensive digs with 28 of the team 76. Sutton had 14 and Yates had 13.
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Bucs Fall Short Against USC Upstate
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — USC Upstate (9-7, 2-1 Big South) and Charleston Southern (10-7, 2-1 Big South) battled hard in Spartanburg with the lead changing five times and nine tie scores, but in the end Upstate took all three sets (20-25, 21-25, 19-25) on Oct. 4.
Offensively, the Buccaneers were solid. They had 31 attacks Emily Struckmeyer had 10 of those. Tristin Sutton led in assists with 14 followed by Cara McLean with 10. Skylar Yates had four serving aces. Yates, the current Big South leader in service aces, recorded three in the opening set. It marked a career-best for the senior in a single set. She also tied her career-high in the service aces category with four Saturday afternoon.
Defensively, Presley Morris led the Buccaneers with 12 digs. Sutton had 11.
Sutton was the only Buc to record a double-double as the sophomore posted 11 digs and a team-high 14 assists. Saturday was Sutton’s 7th double-double performance of the season.
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Charleston Soccer Forges Tie with High Point
CHARLESTON, S.C. — For the first 33 minutes, The Charleston Southern women’s soccer team (3-4-4, 2-1-1) and High Point (0-8-3, 0-2-1) battled hard Oct. 4, then both scored within the next six minutes. A scoreless second half result in the game ending in a tie 1-1.
Buccaneer Cadence Bell scored her second goal of the season at the 39 minute mark to tie the game at one after High Point scored first at 33 minutes. Freshman Rachel Gopalakrishnan recorded her first career assist.
CSU tallied 11 total shots, five on target, while High Point had 16 and 10 on goal. Avery Mason posted a career-high eight saves, surpassing her previous high of seven.
For the Buccaneers, Eva Tiktikakis had two shot attempts as did Delaney Evers. Hailey Swenson, Amelia Boyle and Jenna Knight contributed a shot each.
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Anderson Soccer Loses Solid Defensive Game to Catawba
SALISBURY, N.C. — A scoreless first half of the women’s soccer match between Anderson (5-3-1, 3-2-0) and Catawba (7-0-2, 3-0-1) on Oct. 4 was followed by a scoreless second half until the 55 minute mark when Catawba went up for good and won 1-0 in front of their home crowd.
Tje teams were evenly matched. Both had eight total shots. Buccaneers Kylie Swanson, Camryn Woods, Meggie Powell, Lauren Monday and Zoe Stevenson each had one shot. Madison Bowling had two. Anderson had three shots on goal. Goalkeeper Aliyah Morgan had four saves and played solid.
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Anderson Volleyball Shuts Down Carson Newman
ANDERSON, S.C. — It was a dominating performance for the Anderson women’s volleyball team (8-4,3-1 SAC) at home Oct. 3 against Carson Newman (12-3, 3-3 SAC).
Anderson got out to a strong start in the slow start, but gained steam and easily won the first set 25-17). The second set was a back and forth tale with Anderson gaining the upper hand at the end of the set 25-21. A
Anderson struggled a bit in the third set and played behind more than once, but battled back to take the set (25-21) to take the match 3-0.
Offensively, Anderson had 41 kills with Mia Elder providing 12 of those. Ava Reeves had 11 and Emily Campbell had nine. Ellie Nieporte dominated the serving side with 32 aces of the 36 team aces.
Defensively, Campbell provided three of the five team blocks. Elder and Maura Kindel provided one each. Jamie Juhnevicz continued her solid defensive play by adding 18 digs to her career total. Anderson had 42 total digs. Kaleigh Warren had five as did Katy Smith. Nieporte had six.