Box Score
CLARION, Pa. – Junior outside hitter
Brytni Willis produced 12 kills and matched a career-high with six aces to lead the Concord University volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Goldey-Beacom on day one of the Tony Banner Memorial Tournament in Clarion, Pa. Friday.
Concord (1-0) lost the opening set 25-22, but quickly rebounded to win three straight sets 25-11, 25-6 and 25-5 to come away with the season-opening victory.
As a team, Concord recorded a hitting percentage of .368, the team's fifth highest percentage in the last three years.
In addition to Willis' dominant performance, the Concord attack also featured eight kills from junior middle hitter
Sarah Jones, six kills from senior
Jasmin Sutherland and five kills from freshman outside hitter
Felicia Huerta. Sutherland boasted a team-best hitting percentage of .714.
Junior setter
Amanda Walker passed out 23 assists to go with four aces and junior
Lindsey Smith tallied a match-high 16 digs while matching Walker with four aces of her own. Walker and freshman middle hitter
Lauren Richardson both posted a match-best five blocks.
After dropping the first set 25-20, the Mountain Lions battled back to jump out to a 5-1 lead over Goldey-Beacom in the second set. The early surge was led by a pair of aces from Willis as well as kills from Jones, Walker and Huerta. GBC managed to trim Concord's lead down to two points at 6-4 before CU took off on a 19-7 run to take the set, 25-11, and even the match at 1-1. Willis finished the second set with four kills in addition to her two aces.
Concord carried its momentum into the third set, sprinting out to an 11-2 advantage behind three kills from Willis and two aces from Smith. The Mountain Lions proceeded to run away with the set by taking 14 of the final 18 points in the frame to secure the 25-6 win to pull ahead two sets to one heading into the fourth set. Concord benefited from 11 Goldey-Beacom attack errors in the set.
Goldey-Beacom started the fourth set with three consecutive attack errors followed by a setting error to help give Concord an early 4-1 lead. GBC came back to tie the set at 4-4. However, a service error followed by back-to-back kills from Willis started an 8-0 run that vaulted Concord back into the lead at 12-4.
The Mountain Lions cruised to the match-clinching 25-5 win by scoring the sets final 13 points. The final run was highlighted by four aces from Willis.
Concord will look to pick up two more victories on Saturday when it faces Edinboro at 1:00 p.m. and tournament host Clarion at 7:00 p.m. Live stats for the Clarion contest will be available at clariongoldeneagles.com.
