Cougar Volleyball tops The Citadel, Wofford; falls to Furman

The Cougar volleyball team continued Southern Conference action last week with a 2-1 record, taking its record to 7-9, 3-1 in conference play.
The Cougars started the week with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-14) win over cross-town rival The Citadel on Wednesday in front of 1,362, the third largest crowd in volleyball history. Junior setter Cole Dawley dished out 25 assists and eight kills while senior outside hitter Emily Sawin finished with nine kills and nine digs.
Volleyball opened the weekend topping Wofford 3-0 (25-16, 26-24, 25-18) on Saturday afternoon. Sawin and Sarah Havel each had 11 kills with Sawin adding eight digs. Jennifer Darty had a season-high nine blocks, two shy of her career-high, and junior libero Paige Johnson led the team defensively with 15 digs. Dawley added 23 assists and three blocks.
Going into Sunday, the Cougars were tied with Furman for the South Division lead at 3-0 before stepping on the floor to take on the Paladins.
The Cougars came out strong against Furman with two major leads in the first game before the Paladins made it a two-point contest before a timeout. C of C came out of the timeout and with two strong kills from Sawin, took the first game 25-19.
The second game remained close until Furman took a four-point, which did not last before Furman errors and C of C kills gave the College a four-point lead. However the defending Southern Conference tournament champions rallied to take a 27-25 win and knot the match at 1-1.
Furman continued its strong play with a 5-0 run in the third game before the Cougars responded and the game was tied at 16. The teams exchanged points before Furman went on a 5-2 run to take the game 25-22 and lead the match 2-1.
With the opportunity to close out the match, the Paladins took advantage as they fought through several early ties, including one at 11-11, before mounting a 14-6 run to secure a 25-17 win in the fourth set. In that deciding run, Furman notched six kills and a pair of service aces.
Johnson posted a career-high 22 digs and sophomore middle blocker Elyse Chubb had 11 kills for the Cougars.  Sawin and Havel each added 10 kills while Dawley finished with 37 assists, 12 digs and five kills.
The loss is only the second SoCon defeat at home for the College of Charleston since 2001. The last SoCon loss came on October 27, 2007 when the Appalachian State Mountaineers notched a 3-1 victory.