LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Randolph College Volleyball Team (17-8, 5-3 ODAC) picked up a 3-1 (25-17, 25-15, 20-25, 25-13) win in Old Dominion Athletic Conference action over visiting Emory & Henry College (15-10, 4-5 ODAC) Saturday afternoon at the Randolph Athletics and Dance Center.
The WildCats were led by a career-day by Jordan Templin, who notched school records for kills in a match (29) and hitting percentage (.622 – 29-1-45). Templin also eclipsed the single-season record for kills.
Randolph got out to a 3-0 lead early in the first set and pushed its advantage to 11-6. The two squads traded points through the middle portion of the frame but a three-point run by the WildCats gave them a 21-13 lead, which they converted to a 25-17 set victory. The second frame was all Randolph as it went up 8-2 early and never looked back. A six-point scoring run made it a 20-10 lead for the WildCats, who went on to win the second set, 25-15.
The two teams went back and forth early in the third set. With the score tied, 5-5, the Wasps slowly built their lead to 23-16. Randolph closed the gap to four with three straight points (23-19) but E&H closed things out 25-20 on a kill by sophomore middle Kennady Thomason (Chattanooga, Tenn.).
In the fourth stanza, Randolph scored its points in spurts, with five stretches of three or more points helped the WildCats take the set in convincing fashion hitting .423 (14-3-26).
Templin added 13 digs and three blocks and two service aces to her school-record 29 kills in the match for Randolph. Katherine Lesnak and Noelle Wojciechowski ahd 10 kills each while Kerry McMichael notched 50 assists and Lexi Harrington tallied 14 digs. As a team, the WildCats hit .388 (63-16-121) and added eight service aces and five blocks.
E&H, which improved its hitting percentage for the match greatly with a .500 (16-1-30) performance in the third set finished with an attack rating of .202 (37-14-114). The Wasps had five aces and 11 blocks in the contest. Senior middle Anika Constantinescu (Surrey, British Columbia, CANADA) had seven kills and seven blocks while Thomason added seven kills and three blocks.
Freshman outside hitter Ali Singleton (Mount Jackson, Va.) registered eight kills while sophomore outside hitter Tristen Pennington (Kingsport, Tenn.) had six kills, eight digs and four blocks. Senior Maleah Neely (Hillsville, Va.) and freshman Sarah Scott (Collinsville, Va.) split the setting duties with 16 and 10 assists, respectively. Sophomore libero Emily Hinshaw (Boone, N.C.) notched a team-high 10 digs.
Emory & Henry will step out of conference play on Tuesday when it travels to Bluefield, West Virginia for a 6:30 p.m., contest with Bluefield State College.
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-photo courtesy of Caleb Johnston, E&H '15