The Holmes Convocation Center was the place to be this week, as App State Volleyball hosted the Black & Gold Invitational and won two of their three matches, improving their season record to 5-4 and getting back to a winning record.
The Mountaineers lost in straight sets to Clemson on Thursday, but bounced back in a big way on Friday by trouncing Winthrop in straight sets. They closed out the invitational with a five-set win over Wofford.
App State kept it close against Clemson in the first two sets with some timely scoring runs, but the Tigers were able to pull away in the third set thanks to a 14-3 run, with the final being 23-25, 25-27, 15-25.
The Mountaineers responded to their straight-set defeat by dishing out one of their own, comfortably beating Winthrop 25-20, 25-18, 25-23.
The Black and Gold got contributions from all over the court. App State collected 12 blocks in the match, led by senior outside hitter Lulu Ambrose and sophomore right side Ava Leahy with seven blocks each. Ambrose, junior middle hitter Maya Winterhoff and freshman outside hitter Elise Marchal each had nine kills. Freshman setter Julianna Horta achieved her first career double-double with 33 assists and 10 digs.
App State capped off the weekend by winning a back-and-forth contest against Wofford, 16-25, 25-18, 17-25, 25-18, 15-12.Â
It was the Mountaineer’s fourth five-set match in just nine games, but they seemed to find their groove the longer the match went on. The win takes them to 3-1 in games that went to five sets.
It took a complete game to come out on top, and the Mountaineers delivered. App State racked up a season-high 13 blocks against the Terriers, with Winterhoff and Marchal getting nine and eight respectively. Horta got her second double-double in as many games with a staggering 47 assists and 15 digs. Junior libero Kenady Roper led the team with 20 digs. Winterhoff, Ambrose and Leahy all had double-digit kill totals: Winterhoff with 15, Ambrose and Leahy with 13 apiece.Â
The Mountaineers will travel to Winston-Salem next weekend for the Wake Forest Invitational. App State will play the Demon Deacons on Friday at 7 p.m., and take on Davidson Saturday at 4 p.m.
