Trojans sweep Coker

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 23, 2008 1:46 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Intensity.

Good attitude.

And avoid the pitfall of playing to the competitor's level.

Mount Olive College handled all three goals with ease Tuesday evening in a 25-18, 25-14, 25-12 victory over Conference Carolinas volleyball rival Coker (S.C.) College. The Trojans improved to 12-13 overall this season and claimed their 12th victory in 15 tries over the Cobras since 2001.

More importantly, Mount Olive rose to 8-4 against league opposition and remained in contention for an opening-round home game in the conference tournament.

"We're coming out with a better attitude ... more enthusiastic, intense," said Werling. "We have the goal to win and play our best every game. We played pretty hard (tonight), but I think we've still got work to do for the future.

"It wasn't our toughest competition."

Indeed. Coker (2-20) suffered its 13th consecutive loss and remained winless in 13 league outings.

Werling dished out 24 assists among four hitters, who combined for 32 kills in the 50-minute contest. Racey Bartley and Alicia Mote posted nine and seven kills, respectively. Mote is the reigning Conference Carolinas player of the week.

Bartley and Destiny Ma'ave-Kuewa each served three aces in the Trojans' 12-ace attack. Senior Kari Ham contributed two aces along with four kills and four digs.

Senior Charmaine Harris notched a career-best five blocks, including four assists. Senior libero Mallory Peavler recorded 12 digs, giving her 1,444 for her career and moving to within 59 digs of tying the school record held by Sam Mitchell.

"Of course, I think about (the record)," said the 5-foot-4 Peavler. "But right now, it's all about us winning. We have to play our best every night, so we'll be ready when the conference tournament comes around."

Coker stayed within striking distance in the opening set and trailed 9-8 until Mote delivered an off-speed shot off Corie Skislak's assist. The kill started a 6-2 run which also included a double block from Werling-Harris and a Bartley service ace.

The Cobras climbed within three points on two occasions, but Mote delivered three consecutive kills in a set-clinching 6-2 run.

Skislak emerged the offensive leader in the second set as Mount Olive rallied from a 4-0 deficit. The 5-11 middle hitter recorded a block and three kills, all off Werling assists, to put the Trojans ahead for good at 6-5.

Mount Olive slowly pulled away and closed out the set on Ham's kill.

The Trojans started the third set with an 11-0 run. The Cobras, who are 0-8 on the road this season, never recovered.

"We started off a little flat, but ended up picking it up in the end and playing some pretty good volleyball," said MOC coach James Goodridge. "We wanted to work on some things that we haven't been doing so well and things that been giving us problems here and there.

"We stressed those in our huddles, timeouts and in between games."

But the Trojans never forgot to play with intensity, a positive attitude and put away the lesser competition.