Bryan News

Thu, Nov 12, 2009 - [Volleyball]
Hannah Suits
Hannah Suits
Amanda Manke
Amanda Manke
The Lady Lions Volleyball team narrowly avoided an upset bid by Reinhardt College on Wednesday, pulling out a 3-2 (25-16, 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-9) victory over the Eagles to secure a berth in Thursday's semifinal match with Montreat College.  Although there were several close matches through the afternoon, the Bryan victory was the only one to go the distance in the tournament.
 
AAC Player of the Year Amber Smith proved her worth for the Lions, carrying the offense with 18 kills (.278 pct), while Hannah Suits and Amanda Manke dished out a combined 52 assists in the match.  The Lions offense struggled, hitting .192 on the day.  Courtney Cotter finished with 14 digs while Jessica Kaya added 14 as well. 
The Lions controlled the sets they won, but fell behind early in sets two and four and couldn't mount a big enough come-back effort in those sets to close out the victories.  The Lions looked to be in trouble in set five when Coach Sayles called timeout, down 3-5.  "I told the girls that they forgot how they got there, that we had been down several times this season, especially in the fifth, and yet we found the way to win," commented the Lions' head coach, Leo Sayles,  "We were all over the place tonight - some players seemed too amped and played tight.  Others seemed to play scared and were not effective.  I had to use the entire bench to find 6 that were going to play consistent ball.  But at this point, all that matters is that we got the win. Hopefully, we can focus and come play two solid matches tomorrow."
The Lions (25-13) will face #3 Montreat College at noon, while #1 Union advances to face #4 Milligan College at 10:00am ET. The games are being webcast.