Koala Volleyball Falls in Close Matches with Pikeville & Milligan

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Columbia College volleyball team dropped two close three-set matches to Univ. of Pikeville at home Friday night and to Milligan University Saturday morning.

UPIKE 3, CC 0

Columbia held the lead late in the first set but had a tough call go against them late in the game as UPike rallied to steal it 28-26. The teams combined for 29 kills in the first set with CC spiking 14 and hitting .143.

However, Pikeville then rolled in the second set 25-11 on 9 kills hitting .412. Columbia ralied in the third set again to climb within 13-12 forcing a Pikeville timeout but the Bears held on to take the set 25-20.

Senior OH Jada Gentry led the Koalas with 6 kills, 4 digs and an ace hitting .143 while fellow senior, middle hitter Destiny Brown also tallied 6 kills wth 3 blocks, 2 digs and an ace.

Sophomore setter Debra Shephard led CC with 20 assists and 6 digs adding a kill and a block as well while senior DS Amanda Velez and freshman libero Katie Roberts combined for 10 digs with Roberts adding three aces.

Senior OH Gracie Hicklin also added 4 kills and 3 aces while freshman right side hitter Tamia Fripp posted four kills as well.

Columbia falls to 2-11 overall and 1-6 in the conference while UP improves to 10-7 and 5-4 in the AAC.

MU 3, CC 0

The Koalas then battled very hard playing well in a tight 3-0 loss to Milligan on Saturday. Columbia had the lead late in the first set up 18-11 and almost held on to win it before MU rallied to take it 25-23 on 16 kills while CC had 13 kills. The Lady Buffs then held on to take the second set 25-21 before Columbia's rally fell short in the third set coming all the way back to tie the match at 23-all before falling 25-23. CC and MU each recorded 15 kills in the third set with the Koalas hitting .290.

CC totaled 38 kills in the match while hitting .202. Shephard recorded 35 assists, 3 kills, 3 digs and a block as the setter while Roberts led with 13 digs and two aces as the libero.

Tamia Fripp led the hitters as she recorded a season high 11 kills with 2 blocks hitting .389 while Gracie Hicklin piled up 10 kills hitting .130 with 3 digs and an ace. Senior Destiny Brown led the middle hitters with 6 kills, 2 blocks, and 2 digs as she hit .364 while fellow senior middle Mikayla Stout added 3 kills with 3 blocks. Gentry also registred 4 kills with 2 aces and 7 digs while Velez picked up 2 aces and 4 digs as the DS.

Milligan goes to 11-7 overall and 6-3 in the AAC with CC going to 2-12 and 1-7.

The Koalas next return to action on Friday when they head to Georgia to battle Reinhardt before taking on Truett-McConnell on Saturday.