BOONE, N.C. - App State volleyball closed the Appalachian Invitational Saturday by posting an overall record of 2-1.
Entering Saturday's matchups against Radford and UNCG, App State recorded a five set-win over Eastern Kentucky Friday night.
The Black and Gold opened Saturday's slate with another five-set victory, this time over Radford to improve to 2-0 on the young season. However, App State would fall three sets to none in its final match of the day and the Invitational against UNCG.
"We learned that we can fight the whole weekend, and we learned that we still revert back to some old habits when things get tight," head coach
Matt Ginipro said. "After last year and to now be 2-1, we have a lot to build off of. There were a lot of good things that we saw this weekend."
Sophomore
McCall Denny highlighted the action in game one by recording a career-high 28 kills against Radford. For the Invitational, Denny led the squad in total kills with 44, averaging 14.7 kills per contest.Â
App State secured the opening two sets against the Highlanders 25-22 and 25-23. Radford would fight back to claim the third and fourth set, but the Apps finished off the Highlanders with a dominant 15-4 final set for the match win. The Mountaineers outpaced Radford in total kills (68-54), blocks (10-8), assists (61-45) and in digs (72-68).
Emma Reilly posted a team-high 24 digs in Saturday's opening match.
Daryn Armstrong led the charge in the block category against Radford with six.
UNCG bested the Mountaineers 25-16, 25-11 and 25-17. The Spartans also finished the Invitational with a 2-1 record.
"I told them, it's the first weekend of a full schedule that we haven't had since 2019, so don't put so much emphasis on this one loss," Ginipro said.
The now 2-1 Mountaineers will set their focus on next weekend hosting the Black and Gold Challenge. App State opens the Black and Gold Challenge on Friday with UMKC at 12:30 p.m. and Old Dominion at 7 p.m.Â
App State is set to then square off against East Tennessee State at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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