ELON, N.C. – In a tough fought match, the Elon University volleyball team came up short against the Georgia Southern Eagles in a Southern Conference battle on Saturday night in Alumni Gym. The Eagles took the match 3-0 with scores of 30-26, 31-29 and 30-28.
In the first game, Georgia Southern jumped to an early lead before the Phoenix tied the game at 14-14 on an Emily Lucci kill. With a tie at 20-20, the Eagles outscore Elon 7-3 to take a 27-23 lead and finish the game 30-26.
Elon led the early part of game two by as much as seven points before the Eagles tied the game on a kill from Iulia Porumbescu at 21-21. Porumbescu tallied six kills in the game with no errors. After the 21-21 tie, there would be seven more ties in the game, the last one coming at 29-29. The Eagles took the lead on a hitting error by Elon and ended the game at 31-29 on a block by Gorana Bacic and Jennifer Schenk.
Game three saw 10 ties and Elon’s best hitting of the night. The Phoenix notched 16 kills and only four errors in the game. Down 20-25, Elon went on a 5-0 scoring run to tie the game at 25-25. The teams would tie again at 26 and 27. Georgia Southern went up by two at 29-27 on kills from Porumbescu and Bailey Coleman. Lucci notched a kill on match point to cut the lead to one at 29-28 before Coleman recorded a kill to end the game 30-28 and take the match.
Porumbescu and Coleman led the Eagle’s all-around play. Porumbescu recorded with 14 kills and 18 digs while Coleman tallied 17 kills and 13 digs. Kristen Kasprak added 11 kills with only one error for the Eagle’s offense. Natalia Galantini added 11 digs for the Eagles along with 21 assists. Susan Winkelman assisted on 23 kills and also tallied three service aces.
Lucci led Elon’s offense with 13 kills and only one error on 26 attempts for a .462 hitting percentage. Juliena Gigon added 12 kills along with 10 digs for the Phoenix. MK Spear tallied 11 digs while Emily Downing added 10. Natalie Moore notched 38 assists for Elon.
Elon returns to action on Sunday, October 17 at 4:00 p.m. in a conference match with Davidson. Georgia Southern travels to UNC Greensboro for a 2:00 p.m. match on October 17.
–ELON– Game Box Score
