Armstrong Atlantic State Sweeps Their Way to Championship Game
AIKEN, S.C. - The third-seeded Armstrong Atlantic State Pirates
swept sixth-seeded Lander 3-0 in the semifinals of the 2009 PBC
Tournament in Aiken on Saturday night, part of the PBC-GEICO
Championship Series. With that win, the 13th in AASU's last 14
matches, the Pirates advance to the championship game on Sunday at
2:00 where they will face top-seeded Flagler. Set scores were
25-17, 25-22 and 25-18.
The Pirates hit .244 as a team while holding Lander to .092. AASU
also out-dug the best digging team in the league with a 69-61 edge.
Marina Marinova led the Pirates with 10 kills while Amy Birkmeier
had nine kills while hitting .316. Kristin Standhardinger added six
kills, 36 assists and 11 digs while Kathrin Standhardinger had
eight kills while hitting .421.
The Pirates used late runs in the first two sets to open up a lead.
Tied at 13 in the first, AASU outscored the Bearcats 12-4 to close
out the set, including scoring the final five points in a row with
the set winner coming on a service ace by Ashley Ferry.
The second set was nearly identical but Lander did not allow the
Pirates to pull away so easily. A ball handling error, one of six
called on both teams in the match, pulled Lander within one at
16-15. AASU scored four of the next five points including a pair of
kills from Kristin Standhardinger to lead 20-16. AASU was up 23-18
with Lander ran off four points in a row, three of them coming from
Pirate attack errors. A rare delay-of-game penalty against Lander
gave AASU a 24th point, but Lander answered with two more points to
pull to 24-22 before Armstrong won the set on a Michele Remlinger
kill.
The Pirates left no doubt in the third set as they pulled away
early an ran out to a 15-7 lead thanks to a 7-2 run keyed by kills
from Marinov and Brendyce Budd. Lander had their lowest attack
percentage of the match in the third, hitting -.020 with 11 attack
errors.
Lindsey Everhart led the Bearcats with 12 kills, hitting .393.
Candace LaRocca had 24 assists and 12 digs while Ashley Ferry led
the team with 16 digs.
Armstrong Atlantic State will get the chance to defend their PBC
Tournament championship on Sunday. Sunday's championship game
appearance with be AASU's 11th in the last 12 years. The winner
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