ELON, N.C.- Despite pushing Elon to the brink, Appalachian State University volleyball was unable to complete the season sweep of its Southern Conference North Division rival, as the Apps suffered a 3-0 loss to the Phoenix Friday evening at Elon's Alumni Gym. With the win Elon clinched the SoCon North Division title, and improves to 19-13 and 10-5 while the Black and Gold fall to 18-10 and 9-6 in league play.

After starting first set play on a sloppy note, falling behind 3-0 early, Appalachian was able to rally a comeback and knot action at nine all off a Meghann Forshey kill.

The set was tied at the 10 all and 11 all mark, before it appeared that the Phoenix would run away with it, tallying three straight points to take a 14-11 lead.

Proving to be quite resilient, once again ASU would rally as three straight Mountaineer slams by Alison Blasingame, Lauren Swecker and Maggie Seeds made the score 17-15 in Appalachian's favor.

Elon picked up its pace and went on to take a 24-21 advantage off a Caroline Lemke kill, before a solo block by Caroline Sedon, Elon attack error and Sedon ace knotted action once again at 24.

First set play was tied once more at the 25-point mark, but a final Appalachian hitting error and Phoenix ace propelled Elon to the 27-25 first set win.

Facing a four-point deficit, down 6-2 at the beginning of the second set, a Swecker kill brought ASU back and the set was tied at six.

An Elon error tied play again at 12, but that would be the final time as Traci Stewart registered a kill to put Elon on top for good. Stewart's kill started a 5-0 run for Elon, with Stewart and Lauren Copenhagen leading to the attack to put the Phoenix on top of ASU 17-12.

Trying to keep the Apps alive, Swecker and Sedon contributed offensively, and pulled the Mountaineers back within three points.

Forshey followed suit, and was able inch Appalachian even closer, cutting ASU's deficit to just one down 19-18.

That one point deficit however would be the narrowest of margins, as Elon out-scored ASU 7-2 in the final plays of the second set to hand ASU a 25-20 second set defeat.

Like the first two sets, Appalachian fell behind early in third set play, and despite tying action at nine all, ASU could never grab the lead.

Sarah Schermerhorn was deadly for Elon on the offensive front, tallying two kills, to put ASU down 13-10.

Schermerhorn had a match-best 11 kills, hitting .429 in the match, while also totaling two solo blocks and seven block assists.

Despite solid play by Forshey and Anna Wagner, ASU could never come closer than two points, and went on to drop a 25-20 third set and 3-0 match decision to the Phoenix.

Wagner finished with a team-best nine kills, while also recording 15 digs, while Forshey had seven kills in the match.

Appalachian plays its final regular-season contest of the 2010 season, Saturday, November 13 as they take on UNCG. The Mountaineers and Spartans are set to battle at 7 p.m. in the Spartan's Fleming Gym.