Demorest, GA – On a special day marked to honor the 2014 senior class, the Piedmont College Lady Lion Volleyball team showed out with two sweeps, 3-0, against USA South foe Huntingdon College and Wesleyan College. The Lady Lions (18-10) have posted a .717 winning percentage during the four years this senior class has donned the Green and Gold.
Against Huntingdon, the Lady Lions held the Hawks to an overall negative attack percentage in the match picking up its 12th sweep of the season. In the first set, the Lady Lions jumped out to an early 6-2 advantage but saw a few mistakes and attack errors lead to Huntingdon taking a 10-8 lead. After being tied at 10, Piedmont took control and took the first set 25-16 and cruised to a second set victory 25-17 after leading by as many as 10 in the set.
The Lady Lions left no doubt in the third barely allowing Huntington to reach double digits with a 25-12 victory to seal the match. Piedmont had a total of 5 team blocks in the contest while the Hawks were not able to record a single one.
Senior Kaitlin Norman had another stellar outing as she surpassed 200 kills on the season early in the second set against Huntingdon. She has now exceeded 200 kills in each season she has donned the Green and Gold. Norman added seven kills with a .500 attack percentage as did fellow senior Jennifer Opper. Leading the way for the Lady Lions was Taylor Cramsey who also hit .500 in the match with a match-high nine kills.
Defensively, newcomer Randee Harvel continued to impress at the libero position with 11 digs while fellow freshman Kait Steele led in assists with 18. Senior Xandy Green, who has totaled more than 1,300 assists during her career at Piedmont, tacked on another 11 assists against Huntingdon.
Norman also added five service aces against the Hawks, which is her highest mark since her career-best 6 against Cumberland University (Ky.) back in her freshman season in 2011. The senior has a total of 71 career aces with four regular season matches remaining in the Green and Gold.
In the Lady Lions’ second match of the day against Wesleyan, Piedmont took an early advantage and led by a score of 18-8 before the Wolves rattled off seven unanswered to cut the deficit to only 18-15. The Lady Lions would take control from that point leading to a 25-16 win in the first set.
The second set was a battle to the finish as Piedmont had its closest set of the day, winning 25-20. PC took advantage of a couple services aces by Jennifer Opper and attack errors by the Wolves in the early points of the set to take a lead they would never give up. In the final set, the Lady Lions shut down the Wolves attack in a 25-15 win to take the match.
Leading the way were Kaitlin Norman and Katelyn Durmire, both tallying nine kills in the match while Norman also added 10 digs, coming up one kill shy of a double-double. Norman’s 16 kills on the day put her at 210 this year, tied with her total from her freshman season.
Senior Jennifer Opper also added six kills in the match with no attack errors for a perfect 1.000 attack percentage. Opper also had a career-high six service aces and leads the team with 29 this season. Randee Harvel again led the team in digs with 11 while fellow freshman Kait Steele posted 16 assists, giving her 34 on the day and a total of 428 this season.
The Lady Lions are now just two wins away from securing another 20-win season which would mark the 10th straight season Piedmont Volleyball has met or surpassed 20 wins. Piedmont will be back in action at home Tuesday night inside Cave Arena hosting Maryville College, a team who swept the Lady Lions on the road earlier this year. PC and Maryville will square off at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night with video available through the Mane Event Broadcasting Network.
