Brown Has 22 Kills, Davidson Nearly Knocks Off CofC, 3-2 in SoCon Volleyball

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DAVIDSON, N.C. — Caroline Brown had a match-high 22 kills and picked up 18 digs, and Davidson forced a fifth set before falling 3-2 to College of Charleston in a hard-fought match by the 'Cats on Saturday evening in John M. Belk Arena in Southern Conference volleyball action.

Set scores were 23-25, 25-17, 31-29, 22-25 and 15-11 as the Cougars improved to 19-9 overall and 10-2 in league play. Davidson fell to 13-11 and 3-8, and will finish out their four-match homestand tomorrow against The Citadel as part of Senior Day.

Joining Brown, who's 22 kills were a career-high on the night, in the double-digit column for kills was Erin Lupfer and Tindall Sewell with 13 each. Sewell hit a blistering .684 for the match.

Davidson had four players register 10 or more digs, led by Brown and Molly Crenshaw's 18. Ariel Ley had 17 digs to go along with her 54 assists and five kills, while Christine Perzinski dug up 17 attacks and had eight kills.

Madison Benedict led an outstanding effort on the defense side in blocks, picking up a career-best nine, and Davidson as a team had 12 for the match.

Sloane White of Charleston led the Cougar attack with 20 kills. Taeler Davis and Kallie McKown had 29 and 25 assists, respectively, while Emily Shelton picked up 22 digs.

The first set saw Davidson pull ahead by two early, 9-7, on back-to-back kills by Brown. The 'Cats pushed their lead out the 14-11 on a service ace forcing CofC to burn a timeout. The lead grew to 18-13 on another kill from Brown, who had six for the set, and the 'Cats were in control. But, the Cougars started their comeback by doubling up the 'Cats, 10-5, over the next 15 points to knot things up at 23-all off an attack error. After a brief timeout by Davidson, the Wildcats regrouped and blocked a pair of attack attempts from the Cougars for the 25-23 win.

Charleston jumped out to a 9-1 advantage to get things rolling in set two. Davidson kept it close, cutting the lead to five on five different occasions, with the last one coming at 17-12 on a Cougar attack error. A kill from Brown got the Wildcats within three at 19-16, but a couple of attack errors allowed CofC to push the lead back out to 22-16 and it would tie things up at 1-apiece in sets with the 25-17 victory.

The third set went down to the wire with 14 ties and nine lead changes. Tied at 9-all, Davidson pulled ahead on a pair of service aces and a Benedict kill for a 14-10 lead. A kill from Sewell made it 18-14 and Davidson had the momentum in looking to grab a 2-1 lead in the set. But three straight kills by CofC made it 18-17 and the 'Cats called a timeout.

From there it went back-and-forth. Davidson went up 23-22, but CofC came back to tie it up at 23-all. A Perzinski kill made it 25-24, but again CofC tied it up and went ahead 26-25 on a ball handling error. Lupfer hammed one home to tie it up and then a Perzinski kill tied it up again a few points later at 27. Up 28-27, Davidson saw CofC tie it again on an attack error, but the 'Cats pushed ahead one more time at 29-28 on another ball handling error. CofC then used a 3-0 run for the win, getting two kills from White and an attack error that gave the Cougars the 31-29 win.

Davidson came back though in set four, hitting at a .333 clip and pounding home 18 kills for the 25-22 win. The Wildcats opened up a 5-2 lead on a Benedict kill and the Cougars burned a timeout. Then tied at 10-all after CofC chipped away at the Davidson lead, the 'Cats got on a roll, rattling off a 9-3 run for a 19-13 advantage. Brown, Lupfer and Perzinski each had two kills during the run.

The lead got cut to one later at 22-21, but Davidson regrouped after a timeout and got a kill from Brown, and a block from Lupfer and Benedict for a 24-21 lead. A CofC attack error helped the Wildcats score the win and force a fifth set.

After falling behind 5-1 to start the last set, Davidson calmly came back to tie it up at 6-apiece. CofC used a 5-1 run to grab an 11-7 advantage and the 'Cats had to use a timeout. They got the next two points on errors by the Cougars and cut the lead down to one at 11-10 on Brown's 22nd kill. Charleston though got a kill from Elyse Chubb for a 12-10 lead and then an attack error made it 13-10, which proved to be too much for the Wildcats as they fell 15-11.

The 'Cats wrap up their four-match homestand with a 2 p.m. contest tomorrow, Oct. 30, against The Citadel. They will honor their three seniors prior to the game.

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