Volleyball Defeats St. Andrews 3-1 in AAC Play

Gainesville, Georgia- The Brenau volleyball team defeated St. Andrews (NC) University 3-1 (25-21, 25-23,26-28, 25-19) to capture an Appalachian Athletic Conference on Thursday.

The Golden Tigers never trailed in the first set as the team jumped out to 17-10 early lead. The visiting Knights (3-12 overall, 3-12 AAC) rallied with an 11-6 run to cut the deficit to 23-21 late in the set. However, junior Rachel Hodges notched one of her eleven kills to halt the rally at 24-21. On set point, an attack error by St. Andrews' Kandon Luquer clinched the set for the home team.

In the second set, the momentum carried over for the Golden Tigers as the squad jumped out to a 12-5 lead. Again the Knights responded with a strong 17-7 run to take a late 22-19 lead, but back to back attack errors closed the gap to 22-21. A service ace by junior Sydney Norton tied the score 22-22 for Brenau. At 23-23, St. Andrews allowed a kill from Brenau senior Lanier Leonard and then posted an attack error on set point to fall 25-23.

After St. Andrews captured the third set, Brenau responded by opening the fourth set with a 15-5 run capped by a Hodges kill to take a decided advantage. Again, the Knights answered 12-6 run to cut the deficit to 22-17. However, two final kills by Hodges helped clinch the set and the match victory for the home team.

Freshman Chloe Bennett led the Brenau attack with 16 kills and five blocks, while Leonard and Hodges added 12 and 11 kills respectively. Norton contributed a game-high 28 assists and added 13 digs and Santiago had 19 assists. Defensively, sophomore Julieanne Saliba posted 17 digs, while senior Kayleigh Reece had eight digs.

The Golden Tigers outhit the Knights .227-.110 in attack percentage for the match.

Brenau (2-13 overall, 2-13 AAC) next travel to Columbia, South Carolina to take on Columbia (SC) College (0-12 overall, 0-12 AAC) on Friday at 6:30 pm and Columbia International University (6-5 overall, 6-5 AAC) on Saturday at noon.