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Volleyball finishes season with senior night victory |
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Tuesday, 13 November 2007 |
by LILES NEAL
Intern Sports Reporter
Seniors Lorelle Rau, Dianna Thomas and Brittany Zahn led the Appalachian State University volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Georgia Southern University Saturday at the Holmes Convocation Center.
“It definitely was not just another game,” Thomas said. “The last time you play, you want go out with a bang. You want to play well, and you definitely want to get a win.”
The team did play well, defeating the Eagles in three games, none of which were decided by fewer than seven points.
Thomas and Zahn both recorded 11 kills in their final home match for Appalachian. Rau recorded five kills and 34 assists.
The seniors were strong leaders not only in the Mountaineers’ match on
Saturday, but throughout their careers and the 2007 season. Their names
can be found on numerous occasions in the ASU volleyball record books.
On Friday night, Zahn broke Appalachian’s single-season kill record,
surpassing Pam Huskey’s old mark of 525, set in 1985. Zahn now has 541
kills for the 2007 season.
She is also the ASU record holder for kills in a single match, a record
she broke twice this year, tallying 34 against Elon University and 36
against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Earlier in the year, Thomas broke the ASU career kills record. She
currently has 1,454 career kills. She is also currently second on the
career block assists list at 340.
Zahn and Thomas are both also in the ASU all-time top 10 for career hitting percentage.
Rau is currently third for career assists at 4,157, trailing Joanne
Myers’ second place mark of 4,204, set over the 1989-1992 seasons, by
only 47 assists.
She is also already in the ASU all-time top 10 for assists in a single season for her sophomore and junior seasons.
The seniors have been no small part of the team’s success this year.
The Mountaineers rode an 11-game winning streak to a 14-4 Southern
Conference record and a second seed in the SoCon Tournament.
Head Coach Matt Ginipro said his team played a great season.
“For me to come in as a first-time head coach and inherit a team that
worked as hard as they did and earn the second seed is fantastic, and a
credit to them because they transitioned to a new coaching staff really
well,” he said.
The Mountaineers look ahead to Friday when they will be at the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the host for the 2007 SoCon
Tournament.
“I think we have a good shot at winning it. We had a little lapse last
night,” Zahn said referring to the team’s loss Friday to Davidson
College. “But I think we’re going to go in fired up and ready to play.”
Ginipro believes his team is playing great heading into the SoCon
Tournament and is confident they can contend for the tournament title.
“I like our chances,” Ginipro said. “We’ll have a good week of practice
leading into the tournament, [and we’ll try] to win three matches in
three days.”
The Mountaineers will begin tournament play against Davidson Friday at 10 a.m.
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