Mount Olive spikers turn back Queens University-Charlotte

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 3, 2009 11:05 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Coming off its first Conference Carolinas loss of the season Friday evening, the Mount Olive College volleyball team avoided a Royal flush Saturday afternoon.

Barely.

Seniors Alicia Mote and Racey Bartley each recorded a double-double as the Trojans dumped in-state rival Queens University of Charlotte 14-25, 25-18, 25-15, 21-25, 15-11 at Kornegay Arena. With the victory, Mount Olive trails league-leading Pfeiffer by one-half game.

Pfeiffer swept the Trojans (8-13 overall, 8-1 CC) and knocked from the unbeaten ranks in conference play less than 24 hours earlier on the same court.

"All the conference games are important," said MOC head coach Cole Tallman. "The rankings are fun, but to me everybody is just as important as the team before and I've always looked at it that way. Every match is important because you're starting to play for (tournament) seedings.

"Nobody is at the point of making the tournament yet."

Mote cranked out a match-high 16 kills and shared the team lead for digs (11) with Bartley, who pounded out 15 kills. Caitlin Skislak just missed a double-double with 11 kills and eight digs.

Senior setter Joanie Werling handed out 56 assists.

Mount Olive claimed its 18th straight victory over injury-riddled Queens since 2001.

"We're playing with a particularly-young squad ... mainly freshmen on the floor a lot of the time," said Royals head coach Angela McGuire. "We had a marathon match against Barton (on Friday). We're battling and playing as consistently as we can down the homestretch.

"I'm glad we're not peaking in August, but hitting our stride in late September, early October. It would feel a lot better if we were getting the wins."

Sophomore middle hitter Brittany Harvey led Queens with 13 kills, while junior middle hitter Tanisha Lea contributed 11 kills.

The Royals (5-14, 1-8) used a 10-1 run to take control and emerge victorious in the opening set. The Trojans claimed the second and third sets, and committed pivotal unforced errors in the fourth set.

Tori Hernandez's roll shot off an MOC block attempt gave Queens a 3-2 lead in the decisive fifth set. Christiane Maul's kill off a block attempt started a 5-0 run for the Trojans. Bartley served two aces and recorded an off-speed kill, and Maul supplied a solo block during the short spurt.

Queens climbed within 11-8, but could get no closer.

Bartley's kill off a block, Werling's off-speed shot to midcourt and a Royals serving error allowed MOC to claim its third five-set victory of the season.

"In this conference, everybody has great players and they're going to give their best performance every time," said Tallman. "We've been seeing that ever since we started doing well in conference and we expect that.

"Queens played hard. But, for us, we have to focus on what we do well and that's play hard, too. We just try to do our jobs, keep learning and get better every time."