SSAC News
Fri, Nov 14, 2008 - [Volleyball]
MOUNT BERRY, Ga. -- No. 2-seed Lee and No. 3-seed Shorter, advanced to the championship round of the Southern States Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament on Fri. to set up a rematch of last year's SSAC Finals. Lee remained unbeaten in tournament play with a 3-1 win over No. 1-seed Berry. Shorter played its way out of the losers bracket with two wins on Fri., 3-0 over Faulkner and 3-2 over Berry.
Lee and Berry started the day with a battle of unbeaten teams at the tournament. The top-two seeds played a highly competive and entertaining match, that ended with a 3-1 Lee victory. The Lady Flames won 23-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-20.
Berry faught through the entire match, battling off two match points to tie the score 24-24 in the second set, and then coming back from 16-6 down to tie the score at 18-18 in the fourth set. However, in both instances the Lady Flames stepped up to deliver the knock-out blow to the Lady Vikings.
Milica Krsmanovic led the way with an all-around solid performance of 13 kills, 20 assists, 12 digs and three blocks. Tina Questel led all players with 15 kills and also added 11 digs. Christeena Bertinetti had 22 digs to lead all players as Lee finished the match 74 digs.
Berry was led by Grace Brannon's 11 kills. The Vikings also posted an impressive 17 blocks against the Lady Flames. Kayla Carlisle put up nine total blocks with a pair of solo stuffs and seven block assists. Meghan Francis had two block solos and five block assists, as she and Erin Godwin both added seven blocks in the match. Shawn Carroll also had 21 digs in the match, as Berry had 73 digs.
The Lady Flames also had a strong blocking effort with nine total blocks. Jackeline Toruno had five blocks, while Vedrana Krsmanovic had four block assists.
In the second match of the day Shorter faced Faulkner for the second time in the tournament and once again posted a 3-0 win over the Lady Eagles. The Lady Hawks won 25-17, 25-19, 25-21.
Ashlie Stewartson had 10 kills in the match and was the only player on either squad to finish with double-digit kills. Stewartson also had three blocks, as Shorter had nine blocks, led by Kasi Runion's five block assists and solo block. Runion and Maggie Parker both hit .368 for the match as the Lady Hawks had a .236 hitting percentage for the match.
Faulkner had 54 digs as a team. Holley Hutcheson led the squad with 16 digs and had a team-high nine kills. Samantha Talley had five kills and a .250 hitting percentage. Shaleen Knight had 16 assists for FU.
Kristy Walker led the Shorter offense with 26 assists, while Kayla Rollins had a match-high 19 digs. Shorter also served well with seven service aces in the match. Katie Van Hofwegen, Walker and Jessica Cahill all had a pair of aces in the match
Faulkner finishes the year 18-18 and were 8-8 in the SSAC.
With the win over the Lady Eagles, Shorter set up an elimination match with Berry in the final match of the day. The two schools, which are separated by less than 10 miles met for the third time this season in front of a boisterous crowd at The Cage Center.
Shorter had 10 service aces in the match to come out with a 3-2 win and eliminate the SSAC regular season champions. The Lady Hawks won 24-26, 25-19, 25-22, 25-27, 15-8.
Loni Beth Jones, Cahill and Walker all had three aces in the match for the Lady Hawks. Parker had 16 kills and .382 hitting percentage in the match to lead the Shorter team. Stewartson also chipped in with 12 kills and Ashley Walton hit 11 kills to help Shorter to the win.
Berry's Brannon led all players with 17 kills and also helped out with four block assists., while Taylor Minor had the a stunning effort with 12 kills and a .500 hitting percentage in the match. Ashley Weider posted 32 assists for the Lady Vikings, while Carroll had 15 digs. Berry once again blocked well, with nine total blocks in the match. Carlilse had five blocks in the game with a solo and four block assists.
For Shorter Rollins had 19 digs in the mach, while Walker finished with 36 assists. In addition to strong serving, Shorter was able to take advantage of 32 Berry errors and an additional 10 service errors.
The Lady Vikings finish the year 23-13 and 15-1 in the SSAC. The Lady Vikings were the SSAC regular season champions.
With only two teams remaining in the tournament Shorter (20-17) will face Lee (28-9) up to two times tomorrow. The teams will play at 1 p.m. and if Shorter wins the team's will play again at 4 p.m. to determine a winner in the double-elimination tournament.
Shorter has a knack for making runs in the SSAC Tournament. Last year the Lady Hawks went on a run to win the tournament as the No. 5 seed beating Lee in the championship match.
Lee (28-9) has been dominant in this year's SSAC Tournament, dropping only one set en route to championship match. As the lone unbeaten in the tournament, the Lady Flames just have to win once in two matches against the Lady Hawks on Sat. afternoon at The Cage Center.
The two teams met previously in this year's tournament. Lee won that meeting 3-0 in convincing fashion. The Lady Flames dispatched of Shorter 25-12, 25-4, 25-23. The Flames also swept their two regular season meetings with the Lady Hawks.
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