TROY, Ala. – App State senior
Lulu Ambrose's 1,000th kill highlighted App State Volleyball's regular season finale against Troy on Friday. The Mountaineers cap the regular season with a 17-8 (11-3 SBC) record after falling short to Troy, 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 31-33, 21-25) on the road.
"Last night's five-set thriller was awesome. We battled and hit close to .300 as a team. Today our execution wasn't as crisp and our offense struggled a little," said head coach Sarah Rumely Noble. "Overall, I'm really proud of our regular season. To win our division and get the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament is a huge feat. We are excited to head to Foley next week and battle."
Troy 3, App State 1
Ambrose surpassed 1,000 career kills after tallying a team high 13 kills on the night. Junior
Maya Winterhoff and freshman
Elise Marchal each made 11 kills and Winterhoff recorded a hitting percentage of .500. Marchal recorded her eighth career double-double, adding 13 digs to her 11 kills. Redshirt junior
Addison Heidemann notched her 10th double-double after accounting for 42 of App State's 47 assists and making 15 digs. Additionally, Heidemann matched sophomore
Ava Leahy for the team high in blocks, each going up for four. Leading the team in the digs category was junior
Kenady Roper, who recorded 19.
App State recorded 71 digs to Troy's 63 and matched the Trojans in blocks at nine apiece.
Jumping to an early 3-0 lead in the first set thanks to kills from Marchal and Winterhoff and an ace from sophomore
Caroline Farthing, App State gained control of the first set. With an ace from Marchal and kills from Winterhoff, Leahy, Marchal, and freshman
Bella Hutchens, the Mountaineers extended their lead to 10-4. App State's lead grew to 17-6 after a block from the duo of Hutchens and Leahy, a kill from Marchal, a pair of consecutive kills from Hutchens, and an ace from Heidemann. As the Trojans began to find momentum, kills from Winterhoff, Ambrose, and Leahy kept the Mountaineers ahead, 23-15. The Trojans went on a 4-0 run, but a kill from Winterhoff brought the Mountaineers to set point (24-19). Troy managed to hold App State to three set points, but a kill from Marchal clinched the set for the Black and Gold, 25-22.
In the second set, Troy controlled the lead for the duration of play after jumping to a 3-0 lead early. Despite the deficit, Ambrose and Leahy combined for five of the Mountaineers' eight kills during the set. A Trojan error and kill from Winterhoff held Troy at set point (24-16), but it wasn't enough as Troy took the second set, 25-16.
App State and Troy knotted the score 10 times and swapped the lead four times late in a long third set. The Mountaineers fought back from a 14-7 deficit, steadily closing in with kills from Marchal, Hutchens, and Ambrose. Hutchens also went up for a solo block. Down 21-14, the Mountaineers went on a 4-0 run that featured a solo block from Heidemann, a kill from Winterhoff and Ambrose's 1,000th career kill, to cut the lead to 21-18. App State met Troy at 23 all after another 4-0 run that included kills from Marchal and Leahy, as well as a block from the duo. The Mountaineers and Trojans knotted the score eight times after meeting at 23 all, battling to clinch the set. A kill from Winterhoff knotted the score at 30 all and a kill from Marchal kept the score knotted at 31 all, but Troy managed to pull ahead to clinch the set, 33-31.
The Mountaineers and Trojans tied twice due to kills from Marchal early in the fourth and final set. As Troy pulled ahead, 7-3, a block from the duo of Leahy and Heidemann and an ace from Roper put the Mountaineers within two of the lead (7-5). The Trojans answered with an 8-1 run that extended the deficit to 15-6. App State cut the deficit to 15-10 with a 4-0 run that included a pair of kills from Winterhoff and Farthing's second ace of the match. The Mountaineers continued to chip away at the deficit over the course of the set and managed to hold Troy to a trio of set points to come within three (24-21), but Troy took the set, 25-21, and the match, 3-1.
Looking Ahead
The Mountaineers will head to Foley, Ala. for the Sun Belt Volleyball Championships on Nov. 21-24. App State secured the East's No. 1 seed after clinching the SBC East Division title with a victory over Marshall on Nov. 1. The Mountaineers will enter the tournament in Friday's 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. CT) quarterfinal match. App State will face the winner of Thursday's 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. CT) first round match between the West's No. 4 seed and the East's No. 5 seed. The full tournament bracket will be released on Saturday.
