BOONE, N.C. – The App State volleyball team swept Elon, 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-20), in its home opener at the Holmes Convocation Center on Tuesday. The Mountaineers rise to 4-0 (0-0 SBC) on the season thus far.
"It was a great opening night in front of our fans. We didn't play the cleanest game but were able to fight off a scrappy Elon team for our first home win of the season," said head coach
Chad Sutton. "We're excited to get back to work tomorrow and prepare for a tough weekend in Charlottesville."
App State 3, Elon 0
A trio of Mountaineers slammed down double-figure kills, led by senior
Maya Winterhoff. Winterhoff made 14 kills on a clip of .545 and led the team in blocks with six (two solo, four assists). Following Winterhoff in the kills category was fellow senior
Keionna Mackey, who posted 12, and redshirt sophomore
Delanie Grevengoed, who tallied 10. Redshirt senior
Addison Heidemann made 36 of App State's 41 assists in addition to six digs. She helped the Black and Gold to a team hitting percentage of .264. Sophomore
MeMe Davis made a team-high 21 digs, leading the team for a fourth consecutive match in the digs category.
App State and Elon fought through three tight sets, knotting the score on 11 occasions and trading the lead seven times in the first set alone. App State took a 16-12 edge with back-to-back kills from Winterhoff and senior
Ali Morris. Elon was quick to answer with a 5-0 run to regain a 17-16 edge. The Mountaineers broke a 20-20 tie with a 4-0 run that featured a pair of kills from Mackey and a kill from Grevengoed, to reach set point. Elon managed to hold App State to two set points before Heidemann set Mackey up for a kill to secure the set, 25-22.
In the second set, App State and Elon tied nine times and swapped the lead five times. With a kill and ace combo from Mackey and a kill from sophomore
Lou Johnson, App State pushed ahead, 13-12. Elon was quick to erase the deficit to take a 15-13 lead. Kills from Grevengoed, sophomore
Bella Hutchens, Winterhoff, and junior
Maria Contreras, gave the Mountaineers a 19-17 edge over the Phoenix. In a similar fashion to the first set, the Black and Gold broke a 20-20 tie after a Phoenix error and back-to-back kills from Grevengoed and Mackey. As Elon cut App State's lead to one, Grevengoed brought the Mountaineers to set point with a kill (24-22). With a Hutchens kill, App State capped the set, 25-23.
Early in the third set, Elon jumped to a 4-1 lead, but the Mountaineers answered with a 4-0 run after a Grevengoed kill and three consecutive kills from Winterhoff. Once the Mountaineers took a 5-4 lead, they never relinquished it, despite the Phoenix knotting the score six times. Building off kills from Morris and Grevengoed and a Winterhoff solo block, App State pushed ahead, 15-12. As Elon chipped away at the deficit, kills from Winterhoff, Mackey, and a block from the duo of Grevengoed and Johnson kept the Mountaineers ahead, 22-18. Winterhoff made her second solo block of the match to bring the Mountaineers to set point, before combining with Grevengoed for the final block of the match to seal the set, 25-20, and 3-0 sweep for the Mountaineers.
Looking Ahead
The Mountaineers will venture to Charlottesville, Va. for the Cavalier Classic on Friday and Saturday. App State will take on VCU at 2 p.m. on Friday before clashing with Virginia, at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Saturday's match will be available to stream on ACCNX.
