MOC volleyball advances

By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on November 13, 2008 1:46 PM

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MOC Sports Information

BANNER ELK -- Perennial volleyball powerhouse Lees-McRae won't hoist a conference championship banner into the rafters after this season.

Mount Olive made sure of it Wednesday evening.

Racey Bartley notched 13 kills, including game point, as the fifth-seeded Trojans stunned the Bobcats 3-0 in their quarterfinal-round, Conference Carolinas tournament game. Mount Olive (18-16 overall) opposes regular-season champion Pfeiffer University today.

Lees-McRae had won 10 consecutive tournaments, a streak which started after losing to MOC in the 1997 final. The Trojans haven't played in a tournament final since 2005 when they advanced to the NCAA Division II East Regional as an at-large team.

Kari Ham and Mallory Peavler were freshmen that year.

Ham, a senior outside hitter from Kinston, says the team understands the magnitude of the win, but the Trojans' primary goal was advancing in the tournament.

"We know how Lees-McRae has dominated the tournament for quite a while, so beating them in the tournament on their home floor is a huge win," said Ham. "But our main focus was just trying to win and move on in the tournament, regardless of who we were playing."

Bartley added a team-high four blocks and a service ace for Mount Olive. Joanie Werling tallied 28 assists to go with five kills, two aces and two blocks. Mote finished with a team-high three aces and Corie Skislak recorded three blocks.

Peavler finished with 14 digs to give her 547 on the season and move within 10 digs of breaking the single-season school record of 556, set by Agnes Jankowski in 2003. Peavler already owns the Trojan career digs record with 1,576.

Mount Olive and L-MC split their regular-season meetings.

"The win Friday (vs. L-MC) gave us confidence, but we knew tonight was a new match," said Ham. "Lees-McRae did a good job coming back, but we just tried to focus on one point at a time. We did a good job of not getting frustrated if we lost a point and just moved on to the next point."