Becca Toor Recieves Her All-Tournament Award From Winthrop A.D. Tom Hickman
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Box Score 2 Clemson Box Score
South Carolina Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop volleyball team spilt their final two matches Saturday at the Carolina Challenge as they knocked off South Carolina for the first since the early 1980s, 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23) after falling to the Clemson Tigers in straight sets (30-28, 25-16, 25-17) at the Winthrop Coliseum.
The Eagles improve their record to 2-4 as South Carolina falls to 0-6 on the year. Clemson captured the two-day tournament by going 3-0 while College of Charleston finished second with a 2-1 record and Winthrop finished third.
The Eagles finished the match against the Gamecocks with 60 kills, 69 digs and a .224 hitting percentage compared to Carolina's 57 kills, 66 digs and .183 hitting percentage.
Winthrop was led by senior outside hitter Kaley Viola with her fourth double-double of the young season, finishing with 10 kills and 15 digs. The middle hitters combined for 24 kills with junior Becca Toor finishing with 13 and Sara Felts adding 11. Senior setter Kelsey Hall posted 44 assists and senior libeiro Kelsey Harrison added 20 digs to lead the team. Behind Viola's 15 digs was sophomore defensive specialist Kristin Cruse with 10.
Toor's three-match tournament performance earned her a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Head Coach Sally Polhamus said “Becca worked hard all summer and she came out every day for workouts and that boosted her confidence and drive to compete.” Toor had a combined 36 kills in the three matches over the weekend. Toor was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Clemson's Cansu Ozdemir, Sandra Adeleye and MVP Serenat Yaz, College of Charleston's Whitney Russell and Elyse Chubb, and USC's Hannah Lawing.
In the first set with USC, both teams battled hard and traded points to 16-16. South Carolina made the first run of the match pulling ahead 20-16. The Eagles climbed their way back to make it a one point score at 21-20. The Gamecocks then went on another run, and pulled away from Winthrop, taking the first set 25-21. The first set saw 12 ties.
The second set saw Winthrop take an early 6-5 lead and never looked back. Impressive play from setter Kelsey Hall put the Eagles in front for the rest of the set. Her 8 assists, 2 kills, a solo block and a blocking assist propelled Winthrop to a 25-22 set victory.
The third set resembled the second as the Eagles jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Winthrop went on a 10-3 run that was highlighted by a powerful kill from Viola. The closest South Carolina got in the set was three points as the Eagles offense proved to be too powerful. Winthrop took the set 25-22. Twenty-one of the Eagles 25 points came courtesy of the kill. Winthrop finished this set with a .409 hitting percentage.
“Our goal is 15 (kills), but to have 21 in a set is great,” Polhamus stated.
The Gamecocks led 20-18 in the the fourth set before Polhamus called a timeout to regroup and that is exactly what Winthrop did as the Eagles rallied for four straight points to take the lead 23-20. South Carolina clawed its way back to tie the match at 23-23, but back-to-back kills from Toor gave Winthrop the set and the match win over the Gamecocks.
“It felt good,” Polhamus added. “To get a win at home feels good. Each match we've played this year, we've gotten better.”
In the Eagles' opening match against Clemson, the Tigers compiled an attacking percentage of .423 which was just too much for the Eagles defense to handle. Viola led Winthrop with 11 kills and senior outside hitter Kellie Sellers finished with 10. Redshirt sophomore Brittany Blackman finished with an impressive .467 hitting percentage. Harrison led the Eagles in digs with 13 and Hall added 37 assists.
Winthrop lost a tough 30-28 set before Clemson ran off easy wins in sets two and three to claim the win.
“We tried to make changes to adjust to Clemson's game.” Polhamus said.
“We had way too many unforced errors,” Polhamus said following the Clemson match. “We're a better team than that.”
The Eagles will be back in action when they travel to the Kansas Invitational in Lawrence, KS to take on Kansas on Friday, Sept 11 and then Arkansas-Little Rock and Northern Iowa on Saturday, Sept 12. Winthrop does not return to the Winthrop Coliseum until Sept 24 when they take on Big South Conference rival, High Point. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
