BOONE, N.C.– Kasey Sauls picked up the 3,000th assist of her career as Appalachian State volleyball defeated SoCon North Division foe UNCG on Friday, Oct. 28 at the Holmes Center.

The Mountaineers (17-8, 9-2) remained on top of the SoCon North with a 3-1 win over the Spartans (13-14, 5-6) and picked up their seventh-straight home win.

Both teams battled through a hard-fought first set that featured 12 ties and two lead changes. Appalachian took an early 7-5 lead before UNCG rallied with a 6-3 run to jump in front, 11-10.

The Spartans led by as many was four points (17-13) before the Apps fought back to tie the match at 21-21, but UNCG scored four of the final six points for a 25-23 set win.

The Mountaineers stormed back in this second set to take a 25-15 victory. After trailing 4-2 early in the second set, ASU strung together a 5-0 run to take a 7-4 lead it would not relinquish.

Appalachian led by as many as six points twice in the late stages before ending the set on a 4-1 run to pick up the second set victory.

The Apps dominated the final two sets of the match, leading by as many as 13 in the third set and nine in the fourth set to pick up 25-14 and 25-15 wins, respectively.

Maggie Seeds led all players with 14 kills while Kelly Rhein had a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs.

Sauls had match-high 32 assists to push her career total to 3,021, sixth in ASU history. Courtney Rhein led the Mountaineers with 16 digs and Anna Wagner had eight kills.

Seeds also finished the night with four block assists to boost her career total to 245, good for seventh all-time in the Appalachian record book.

As a team, the Apps hit .338 while holding UNCG to just a .092 attack percentage. The Spartans committed 30 attack errors to Appalachian's 14 and had just six blocks to the Mountaineers' 15.

Appalachian returns to action on Sunday when it faces Elon at 2 p.m. inside the Holmes Center.

NOTES: Appalachian improved to 10-1 at home this season... the first-set loss on Friday marked the first time that the Apps had dropped a set at home since a 3-1 win over Samford on Sept. 24... it was the Mountaineer's eighth 3-1 victory of the season... ASU's 58 kills tied the team's third-best single match mark of the season... Appalachian has recorded 50 or more kills 15 times this season... the Mountaineers will look to avenge their earlier loss to Elon on Oct. 1... the loss to the Phoenix is ASU's only defeat at the hands of a SoCon North foe this season.