University of North Florida
East Tennessee State
No. 6 UNF to Face No. 3 ETSU in Volleyball Opening Round
11/17/2010 10:33:30 AM | Volleyball
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The No. 6 seeded University of North Florida volleyball team will face No. 3 seeded East Tennessee State in the opening round of the 2010 Atlantic Sun Conference Volleyball Championship on Thursday, Nov. 18. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. in Alico Arena on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast in Fort Myers, Fla.
UNF (7-21, 4-6 A-Sun) defeated crosstown rival Jacksonville, 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-23) in the Ospreys' last outing to earn the final spot in the conference tournament. Second team All-Conference selection Paige Pridgeon tallied 18 kills on .500 hitting percentage in the match while Jessica Catelano added 11 kills on .526 hitting percentage.
Pridgeon leads the Ospreys this season with 3.91 kills per set and ranks second in the conference. Catelano is averaging 2.30 kills per set while Dagnija Medina and Anna Budinska are tallying 1.82 and 1.78 kills per set, respectively. Britt Claessens is putting up 8.86 assists per set. On the defensive side, Nicole Baran is notching 4.16 digs per set, and Medina has tallied 80 blocks this season.
The Bucs (24-8, 7-3 A-Sun) defeated USC Upstate, 3-0 (25-20, 25-13, 25-17) in their regular season finale to secure the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
Leading ETSU is Megan Devin with 2.92 kills per set. Desiree Dyck is adding 2.64 kills and Alysa Long is averaging 2.36 kills per set. Erin Ryan is also averaging over two kills a set with 2.29. Whitney Cogburn is putting up 9.67 assists per set. Defensively, Kiley Tamblyn is recording 4.34 digs per set and Long has posted 149 blocks this season.
ETSU holds the 6-3 advantage over UNF in the all-time series. The two teams met earlier this season in Jacksonville where the Bucs secured a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-17) win.
Pridgeon had 10 kills and Catelano tallied nine for the Ospreys while Baran notched 18 digs in the match. Long and Devine led the Bucs with 10 kills each and Tamblyn had 18 digs.
The winner of the match will move on to face No. 2 seeded Kennesaw State in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
