BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Concord University volleyball team started its weekend with a pair of victories on day one of the King University Invitational in Bristol, Tenn. The Mountain Lions began the day by making quick work of North Greenville with a 3-0 win before closing out the day with 3-2 victory over Lees-McRae.
Concord gutted out 27-25 and 25-22 wins in the opening two sets against North Greenville and completed the sweep of the Crusaders with a ten-point, 25-15, victory in the third.
After dropping the opening two sets to Lees-McRae (25-22 and 25-21) in the nightcap, the Mountain Lions showed tremendous heart by staging a three-set rally to upend LMC with consecutive 25-10, 25-13 and 15-5 wins to finish off the comeback.
The wins improve Concord's record to 3-2 on the season. North Greenville and Lees-McRae fall to 1-4 and 0-5, respectively.
Leading the way in CU's opening win over North Greenville was junior
Sarah Jones, who started the Invite off by earning her first double-double of the season with a 14-kill, 11-dig effort against North Greenville. For the match, Jones boasted an attack percentage of .571.
Adding to the Concord attack vs. NGU was junior
Brytni Willis and senior
Jasmin Sutherland. Willis tallied nine kills with Sutherland close behind with eight kills and a team-best two blocks of her own.
Junior setters
Nikki McMillan and
Amanda Walker guided the Concord offense with 17 assists and 12 assists each. Walker also served up a match-high three aces.
As a team, Concord registered an attack percentage of .333 in the sweep.
The Mountain Lions' come from behind win over Lees-McRae featured 17 CU aces. Five different players (Jones, McMillan, Walker, Willis and junior
Lindsey Smith) each totaled three aces with senior
Allie Pennington contributing two of her own.
Jones and Willis both had double-doubles in the win with respective stat lines of 13 kills, 10 digs and 12 kills, 15 digs. Jones also came away with a match-best six blocks. Sutherland, freshman
Lauren Richardson and junior
Whytni Willis all chipped in five blocks as well. As a team, Concord finished the match with 14 total blocks.
CU looks to stay perfect on the weekend with victories over Southern Wesleyan (12:15 p.m.) and King University (4:45 p.m.) on Saturday.
