Alabama
3-0
College of Charleston
2-1
Alabama Caps Undefeated Opening Weekend with Three-Set Sweep Over College of Charleston Saturday
8/25/2018 8:36:00 PM | Volleyball
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Alabama volleyball capped its undefeated opening weekend at the Hampton Inn Charleston/West Ashley CofC Classic with a three-set sweep over the host College of Charleston, winning by set scores of 25-14, 25-22 and 25-23.
Alabama (3-0) posted its first 3-0 start to the season since 2014 with a sweep over College of Charleston (2-1) Saturday night at TD Arena. The Crimson Tide offense was very efficient, hitting .354 as a team with just eight errors to 48 kills on 113 swings. Junior Ginger Perinar paced the attack, hitting .500 with 13 kills, while junior Hayley McSparin was close behind with 11 kills and a .524 clip. The Cougars were held to a .188 team attack percentage, committing 17 errors.
For their efforts over the weekend, McSparin and junior Mahalia Swink were named to the All-Tournament team and senior Cidavia Hall was the Tournament MVP.
College of Charleston scored the first point of the match but three in a row for Alabama quickly put the Tide ahead. Alabama continued to pad its lead, eventually moving ahead 10-4 as the Cougars called their first timeout. Four more unanswered points after the timeout extended the Tide's scoring streak to six straight, swelling the lead to double digits at 14-4. The teams continued trading back and forth, as Alabama hit the 20-point mark still leading by 10 and held the same margin at set point before a block from Swink and Hall ended frame at 25-14.
The Tide took the first lead of the second frame and remained ahead until the Cougars tied it at 9-9. The home team could not take the lead though as Alabama used a 5-2 run to lead 14-11 and Charleston called its first timeout. The Cougars would eventually claw back to tie it twice but the Tide held steady, rattling off three unanswered to lead 20-17 at Charleston's second timeout. Alabama would hold the lead until the end of the frame with a kill from McSparin giving the Tide a 25-22 set victory to take a 2-0 match lead.
Charleston opened the third set with four-straight points and later, with its lead trimmed to one, the Cougars scored three in a row to move back ahead by four as Alabama called a timeout down 8-4. Charleston continued to creep ahead, moving up by seven at the Tide's second timeout, 14-7. Alabama closed the gap with a 5-1 run and the Cougars called a timeout with its lead now trimmed to three, 15-12. A Charleston attack error eventually tied it up at 18-18 and a kill from McSparin and Cougar error gave Alabama its first lead of the set, 20-18, as Charleston called a timeout. The Cougars tied it up at 21-21 but the Tide closed it down to win, 25-23, and complete the sweep.
Next weekend, Alabama heads to Annapolis, Md., for the 2018 Kristen Dickmann Invitational, hosted by Navy. The Tide opens play against the Midshipmen Friday, Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. CT before facing Villanova (12 p.m. CT) and Dartmouth (4 p.m. CT) on Saturday, Sept. 1.
