By Carolina Garcia, Staff Writer
On Friday, October 10, the Armstrong Pirates hosted USC Aiken in a battle that extended the Pirates’ consecutive regular season PBC winning streak to 35, dating back to 2012. This victory keeps the Pirates undefeated in league play as well. Armstrong beat USC Aiken 3-2 with set scores of 20-25, 25-22, 26-24, 22-25, and 15-9.
USC Aiken took the first set with 17 kills and hitting .417. The Pirates clenched the second set, and senior Taylor Permenter shined in the third set with six kills, one of which notched a set point, bringing the Pirates ahead of USC Aiken 2-1. The USC Aiken Pacers won the fourth set with a hitting percentage of .407 and 16 kills.
Ashley Diedrich of USC Aiken had eight kills in the fourth set. The Pirates quickly put points on the board in the fifth and final set, taking the lead 6-0 due to kills by sophomore Emily Wylie and Rachel Thompson and four hitting errors by Aiken’s Diedrich. The match came to an end with a Pirates victory due to a critical hitting error by the Pacers’ Taylor Stratton.
Overall, the Pirates hit .267, and three players notched kills in the double digits. Senior Stephanie Sfara had 16 kills; Wylie had 14 kills and two errors in 29 attacks, and Permenter hit a match-high of 11 kills. Senior Kamryn Sherman delievered 52 assists while senior Morgan Hill held it down defensively with23 digs.
Dierich led the Pacers with 23 kills, and Sheila Walsh had 47 assists and 11 kills. Defensively, Monica Cardona delivered 16 digs.
The Pirates returned on Saturday to host Lander in a PBC conference match as well as Mount Olive in a non-conference match. The Pirates first took on Lander at 1:00 p.m. in the ARC. Both matches resulted in Pirate victories.
In the first match, the Pirates defeated the Lander Bearcats 3-1 with set scores of 25-19, 25-18, 20-25, and 25-13. Sophomore led five players in double digit kills overall. Thompson had 15 kills with a hitting percentage of .750 and no errors in 20 attacks. This is the best single match hitting performance in Armstrong’s history for a player with 20 or more attacks. Overall, the Pirates delivered 72 kills including 17 from Stephanie Sfara, who also had 20 digs, 15 kills from sophomore Anna McGee, 11 from Emily Wylie, and 10 from Taylor Permenter. Sherman notched 69 assists.
The Pirates then took on the Mount Olive Trojans in a 3-0 with set scores of 25-17, 25-16, 25-10. Permenter led the Pirates with nine kills, and Sherman played a stellar match with 26 assists, 14 digs, six kills, four service aces, and two blocks.
The Pirates will host Albany State on October 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the ARC in a non-conference match up.
