Friday, October 27, 2006

DELAND, Fla. (October 27, 2006) - The Lady Bucs overcame a sluggish start Friday evening, and wrapped up the top seed in next month's Atlantic Sun Conference Championship with a four game victory over Stetson from the Edmunds Center.  The victory extends the Lady Bucs school-record winning streak to 12 consecutive matches.

"Stetson played well tonight," said head coach Lindsey Devine. "We started slow in every game, and we need to learn to have better mental focus from the first point; especially heading into the postseason."

After the two schools split the match's first two games, the Lady Bucs (21-5, 8-0) seized control with a 30-28 triumph in the third frame.  After taking the 2-1 match advantage, the ladies never looked back, rolling past the Hatters (5-17, 0-7) in game four, 30-18.

ETSU outhit the Hatters .225-.183 for the match, including a monstrous .500 percentage in the match-sealing fourth game.  The Lady Bucs match hitting percentage is also their third-best mark this season in a four-game match.

Senior Jennifer Sartor (Toronto, Ontario) set a new career high with 24 kills, adding 12 digs for her seventh double-double of the season, and fifth in the last six matches.  Junior Callie Kiselich (Colorado Springs, Colo.) joined Sartor, contributing 13 kills and 12 digs of her own for her fifth double-double this year.

Junior Kaena Apana (Waianae, Hawaii) followed up her record-setting performance against Lipscomb last Sunday with a match-high 24 digs, while senior Nani Emerson (Tracy, Calif.) flawlessly organized the ETSU attack, committing no errors while dishing out a match-high 52 assists and putting down two kills.  Senior Crystal Palmer (Chico, Calif.) joined Sartor and Kiselich in double-digit kills with 14.

The Lady Bucs can wrap-up the conference championship outright Sunday afternoon when they travel to Macon, Ga. for a 2 p.m. tilt with Mercer.