WHEELING, W.Va. – The Concord University volleyball team split a pair of matches at Wheeling Jesuit inside the McDonough Center Saturday afternoon.
CU (6-23, 2-11 MEC) lost in three sets to Wheeling Jesuit (28-3, 13-0 MEC) in a Mountain East Conference match, but knocked off Virginia State (18-9) in four sets in its second match of the afternoon.
Match 1: Wheeling Jesuit 3 – Concord 0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-15)
Wheeling Jesuit jumped out quick by scoring the first seven points of the match, but it did not phase the Mountain Lions as they scored five of the next seven points against the nationally-ranked Cardinals. CU had kills from four different players while junior libero
Erin Shannon had a service ace.
Up 9-5, WJU went on a 9-3 run to go up by double figures as it went on to win the first game by 12 points.
The Mountain Lions hung tough versus Wheeling Jesuit in the second match. After falling behind early, CU tied the set at 11-11 on an assisted block by senior middle hitter
Brooke Heck and senior outside hitter
Ellie Lawrence and grabbed a 12-11 lead on a kill from freshman middle hitter
Sheridan Herron.
Concord still clung to a 15-13 lead after a service ace from junior setter
Jenna Mounts. But, the Cardinals scored the next four points and held off the Mountain Lions in the second set by four points.
The Maroon and Gray tied the third set at 6-6 after a kill from freshman right side
Camryn Huber, however, Wheeling Jesuit scored seven of the next eight points to push out to a 13-7 lead. The six-point deficit was as close as CU would get for the remainder of the match.
Herron finished with a career-best 10 kills. Lawrence and senior outside hitter
Alexi Pranckus each had seven kills.
Freshman setter
Imani Rodgers tallied 21 assists, and Shannon went for 14 digs.
Match 2: Concord 3 – Virginia State 1 (25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 25-20)
In the first set, Concord trailed for a portion, but was never down by more than two points. Trailing 19-18, Concord scored five of the next seven points to go up 23-21. Heck and Mounts each had a kill during the stretch. After a ball handling error on the Trojans, Heck closed out the set with a service ace.
Holding onto a 7-5 edge early in the second game, Concord ripped of a 7-2 run to create some space between itself and Virginia State. Heck, Huber and Pranckus each had a kill while sophomore libero
Lindsay Maddox had a service ace.
VSU fought back to get the set to within 19-18. After consecutive errors and a kill from Pranckus, CU opened back up a four-point lead and Concord scored the final six points of the game to go up 2-0 in the match.
A 6-0 run from the Trojans gave them a 17-8 lead as they won the third set to force a fourth set between the team.
The Mountain Lions started the final game on a 14-4 run. Lawrence led the effort with three kills. VSU closed to within 17-10, but a kill from Heck and a service ace from Pranckus restored a nine-point edge for Concord. Once again, Virginia State battled back to get the Concord lead down to 23-20, however, two attack errors ended the match.
Heck had 11 kills and hit .625 in the contest. Huber and Lawrence each notched eight kills for Concord. Pranckus had seven kills, three service aces and 12 digs.
The Mountain Lions travel to UVa.-Wise 7:00 p.m. Tuesday for a MEC contest.
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