Caleb Bailey, Sports Editor
The Armstrong State Pirates’ volleyball team extended their win streak out to six games over the weekend when they went undefeated at the Urbana Fall Invitational in Urbana, Ohio. The successful weekend started off with a thrilling 3-2 set victory over host school Urbana University on Friday, Sept. 16.
The two teams went back and forth on sets, with the Pirates winning the first and third 25-15 and 25-22 while the Blue Knights won the second and fourth 25-17 and 25-23. Armstrong ended up pulling out a 15-13 victory in the fifth and final set as they were led by senior Kim Brody and junior Iva Scepavonic.
The final three match-ups of the weekend went much more smoothly for the Pirates as they defeated Shepherd University 3-0 in the second match on Friday and then Kutztown and Malone 3-0 in the two sets on Saturday, Sept. 17.
The Pirates were paced by a monster weekend from sophomore Carley Eiken. She recorded 159 assists through the four games, while she also added 29 digs in the four games.
She talked about what the trip up north meant to the team and how they will use their dominant performance to advance forward this year.
“Going to Ohio was a great trip for us,” Eiken said. “We got a chance to compete against some teams from the Mid West that we don’t often get to play. This is a team that works extremely hard and it produces wins to start the season. It’s a great momentum boost going into conference play.”
Head coach Will Condon was proud of what the team was able to accomplish over the weekend and he feels like they were able to gauge what conference play will feel like after three tournaments to open the season.
“I thought we did a really good job of executing at a high level for most of the weekend,” Condon said. “We had some good stretches of play with some long runs of points where the team looked really smooth and everything flowed like we are looking for from this group.”
The Pirates are now 10-1 on the season with all but one of their remaining games being Peach Belt Conference games. They open the home season with a pair of games this weekend.
They host USC Aiken on Friday, Sept. 23 and then Lander on Saturday, Sept. 24.
