Box Score by Kevin Buczek
TIGERVILLE, S.C.-For the second straight day the Barton College women's volleyball team was unable to hold onto the lead after winning the first set this time losing at Conference Carolinas foe North Greenville University by a 3-1 score on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Bulldogs had more kills (57-50), assists (48-46), blocks (6-5) and hitting percentage (.245-.242) but Barton committed more total errors (39-29) while NGU had a strong defensive match with 83 digs (second highest total this season) in rallying for the 23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-18 triumph.
North Greenville ends its regular season at 18-12 overall and 5-11 in the league while BC finishes at 9-17 and 7-9.
The 2014 Conference Carolinas Tournament will begin with quarterfinals play on Tuesday. The Crusaders will be the No. 3 seed in the South Division and will visit the North Division No. 2 seed Lees-McRae College. Barton is the No. 4 seed in the North and will have to play South Division champion Erskine College. The other semifinals include North No. 3 Belmont Abbey at South No. 2 Limestone and North No. 5 Mount Olive at North No. 1 King. All four quarterfinals matches on Tuesday are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.
Senior Melissa Cochran led the Lady Bulldogs with a season-high 22 kills against NGU. Cochran only committed two errors on 42 swings for an incredible .476 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Shae Schmidt ripped 12 kills and sophomore Kaitlyn Micol and freshman Courtney Wiseman followed with eight and seven kills, respectively.
Sophomore Alex Ward produced 43 assists in her second straight match starting in the setter position. Senior libero Amanda Grandy added 28 digs on the defensive end.
With the first set tied at 21-21, BC used a block and a kill by Schmidt to jump in front before closing out the set on an ace by Ward and a kill by Micol.
North Greenville rallied by winning the next two games in close sets. The Crusaders then jumped out to an early lead in the fourth and held on to close out the match.
Yomi Adeyeye led NGU with 15 kills and Elizabeth James totaled a double-double of 24 assists and 18 digs.
