August 28, 2007

WILSON, N.C.—Senior outside hitter Lindsey Stansbury (Morgan City, La.) recorded 20 kills, five aces and three blocks Tuesday night as visiting St. Andrews Presbyterian College opened Conference Carolinas volleyball play with a 28-30, 30-16, 30-28, 30-25 victory over Barton.

The Knights improved to 2-3 overall while Barton was opening its season. St. Andrews entertains Queens University of Charlotte at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night in their home-opener.

“It is nice to start the conference schedule with a win.  Competition is usually very strong at the end of the year.  That makes the early season wins much more important,” said third year St. Andrews head coach Dan Kreiger.

SAPC jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the first game but the hosts rallied back and tied the opener for the first time at 24-24. The Lady Bulldogs kept the momentum and squeaked out a two-point win, 30-28, to take an early one-game lead.

“We feel like we let game one get away from us. We should have put them away.  Barton has a good team and you can’t let them hang around or they will find a way to beat you. We improved our level of energy on the court. That allowed us to improve in every aspect of the game for the remainder of the match,” stated Kreiger.

The Knights quickly answered back and tied the match with their best game in the second. St. Andrews grabbed an early 11-5 advantage and rolled to the 30-16 win with sophomore Galina Podolsky (Raleigh, N.C.) finishing it off by blasting a kill. SAPC once again took an 11-5 lead in the third frame but the pesky Bulldogs tied everything back up late at 27-27. The Knights won two of the next three points with a pair of kills and sophomore setter Jamie Hayes (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) and freshman Leah Davison (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.) teamed up for the game-winning block assists.

Barton looked ready to tie the match back up by taking a quick 5-0 lead in the fourth but St. Andrews stormed back and tied the game at 14 apiece. The crucial set remained close until the Knights finally pulled out to the final five-point margin of victory, 30-25, as senior outside hitter Tara Lemieux ( Panama City, Fla.) ended the evening with a spike.

“Lindsey played a good match. She attacked the ball intelligently. As a team, we served very tough and lessened the amount of mental mistakes we were making,” commented Kreiger.

Lemieux added 10 kills and three aces for the victors. Freshman Kelly Williams (Laurel, Md.) contributed four aces and Podolsky had three. Hayes had 41 assists and senior libero Erin Haugen (Fort Mill, S.C.) registered 11 digs.

“I think the team is starting to understand what it takes to win.  We will see if we can carry that over from last night into tonight’s match with Queens,” concluded Kreiger.

For the Lady Bulldogs, freshman outside hitter Melissa Ritter recorded 20 kills and senior outside hitter Michelle Walker added 13.  Walker added five blocks and four aces while Ritter recorded 12 digs and three blocks. Freshman libero Kristen Peschock added nine digs.