BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State University volleyball was able to take a set from Southern Conference leader College of Charleston, but could not complete the comeback in a 3-1 loss on Friday at the Holmes Center.

The Mountaineers (5-18, 1-8 SoCon) fell behind by a 2-0 score to the Cougars (17-6, 8-1) before rallying for a thrilling third-set win.

It would prove to be too big a hole to climb out of, however, as CofC rebounded with a victory in the fourth set to take the match by scores of 25-18, 25-14, 23-25 and 25-19.

App State had its chances to put College of Charleston away in the first set as it held a 9-6 lead early on, but a late 9-2 run by the Cougars put them in front for good to take a 1-0 match lead.

The Cougars jumped out early in the second set, leading by as many as 11 points (20-9) en route to a convincing 25-14 second-set victory.

The Mountaineers responded with a huge third set as it battled through 14 ties and seven lead changes to pull within 2-1 with a 25-23 victory. After trailing by three (21-18) late in the set, the Apps reeled off a 6-0 run and held of the Cougars for the third-set win.

The fourth and final set was a back-and-forth battle that saw the deficit change little for each team until CofC finally strung together a 4-0 run in the waning moments to take a 25-19 set victory and a 3-1 match win.

Lindsey Sauls and Dalton Tolliver tallied 15 and 14 kills, respectively, to lead Appalachian while Paige Brown finished with a team-best 22 assists. Courtney Rhein led the Apps with 18 digs on the night.

College of Charleston was paced by a match-high 18 kills from Sloane White, who hit a blistering .417 on the attack. Darcy Dorton chipped in with 15 kills and Taeler Davis tallied 44 assists.

The Mountaineer offense was stifled by the Cougars all night as it managed to hit just .098 on the attack while College of Charleston tallied a staggering 17 blocks in the match.

Appalachian State returns to action tomorrow when it faces The Citadel at 7:30 p.m. at the Holmes Center.

MATCH NOTES: The Mountaineers fell to 9-23 all-time against the Cougars... Rhein added to her career-dig total and now stands at 1,734... she needs 95 more to become the school's all-time leader... the Apps have lost six-straight SoCon matches for the first time since 2008, when the squad also dropped six in a row... Tolliver tallied 10 or more kills for the sixth-straight match and the 14th time this season.