Dawgs dispose of Golden Falcons in three games

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on August 27, 2008 1:46 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Momentum can often be a train nearly impossible to derail.

Princeton proved this to be true in a 26-24, 25-22, 25-19 win at Charles B. Aycock on Tuesday.

The Golden Falcons trimmed the Bulldawgs lead to 13-11 in Game one before Princeton rattled off six consecutive points all off Aycock hitting errors take a 19-11 advantage.

Princeton's run was momentarily interrupted by Beth Carter's kill that drew the Golden Falcons within 19-12. However, Ashley Braswell answered with a kill of her own for the Dawgs.

Aycock (2-2) would battle back behind a pair of aces, a block and a kill from Carter along with a kill from Brittany Jackson to take a brief lead at 24-23. However, errors on the final three points of the game cost the Golden Falcons a shot at 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match.

"That was very important in terms of momentum," Princeton head coach Trudi Rast said. "I thought we had good court coverage in terms of getting to free balls and covering holes."

Aces by Torie Benton and Anna Sullivan helped the Golden Falcons jump out to a 7-1 lead in game two. Princeton (3-1) fought back to 9-5 with a pair of kills from Devon Murphy. Braswell's kill later in the game trimmed the Aycock cushion to 13-12 before back-to-back aces by Daniel Mitchell put the Dawgs in front 15-13.

The Golden Falcons got within one at 18-17, but Murphy and Braswell combined for four kills down the stretch, including Braswell's game-winner.

Three Aycock errors, two kills from Braswell and another from Murphy put the Golden Falcons in a 6-1 hole in game three.

Erin Shultz recorded a pair of key aces for the Dawgs and Braswell continued to pound out kills as the Princeton appeared to be in control at 17-10.

Aycock climbed to within five points on several occasions down the stretch but could never close the gap. Benton's kill fought off one match point and kept the Golden Falcons alive at 24-19, before Braswell's kill put the finishing touches on the Dawgs victory.

"Trudi's bunch their scrappy, they don't have height but they're scrappy," Aycock head coach Davis Harris said. "We have to focus more on what's going on over on the other side of the net. We have to get in tune with not just playing volleyball but being smart about things. We have to spread it around a little more and instead of worrying about getting the ball over the net we have to know where we're going with it. We're still very young and we're getting there. It just can't happen one match and not the other. It's like we took two steps forward and then one step back today."

Murphy finsihed with 18 kills and Braswell added 15 kills, a block and an ace.

"Devon and Ashley played a very strong game tonight and that made a huge difference, it really did," Rast said. "A game like this shows some things that we need to work on."

Aycock travels to D.H. Conley today and Princeton hosts Union on Thursday.