Box Score "When the game is really close and intense, Centre College Volleyball shines brightest," Dr. Brian Storz, faculty liaison for CCVB, celebrated not only the win today over Birmingham-Southern but also "pretty much this entire year." Indeed, outscoring the Panthers by a grand total of one point over four tense games (28-26, 19-25, 30-28, 25-22) at BSC, the "Gold" truly earned its 17th victory (against four losses), as they moved to nine-and-two in the SAA.
In the first set, at 25-26, senior
Catherine Janszen (Cincinnati, OH) put the ball down to force "deuce". At that point, mirroring an event from the Wednesday match with Sewanee,
Erin McGrath, the Louisville, KY sophomore, went onto the court and promptly served an ace, which was quickly followed by a terminal error on the part of Birmingham-Southern. (It should be said here that the Panther defense was generally uncompromising, and, in fact, downright stingy in the extreme.)
In game three, Centre appeared victorious at 25-23, before the vigilant BSC coach called attention to an improper substitution, which precipitated the Panthers' being at set point three times. Sophomore
Elizabeth Janszen (Cincinnati, OH) then decided to dedicate three of her 24 assists to set up junior
Celia Moser, (Troy, OH) for the tie, and senior
Lydia Prevost, (Knoxville, TN) twice to achieve the win.
Moser, by the way, had six other kills, and hit .316 (just about triple what each of the two teams managed today). There's more to say about Prevost too: She provided seven blocks, one fewer than junior
Suzanne Asbury (Louisville, KY).
Beth Cecil, who is from Bardstown, KY, and is a sophomore, killed 14 times.
Paige Poggemeier, the St. Charles, MO sophomore, had 35 digs; and each of the Janszen relatives was good for 14, one fewer than
Kary Stivers, the senior, who is from Louisville, KY. Stivers also tallied two service aces.
Head Coach
James Neyhouse, who admitted some complicity in the aforementioned "improper substitution", called his team's resolution "Exceedingly satisfactory. Our players showed a lot of character. We faced adversity, which we had put ourselves into, but we pulled ourselves out." Assistant Coach
Paul Bowling underscored that, "although Coach is right that we created some of own problems, Birmingham-Southern has to accept a whole lot of the responsibility for most of our discomfort against them: They are a quality team, who made smart adjustments throughout the match." Speaking of "a quality team", the Colonels will see another one of them
tomorrow at noon (DST) after traveling west from Birmingham, AL on Interstate 20 to Jackson, MS, the home of MIllsaps
