PBC CHAMPS! Armstrong Clinches Volleyball Outright Title With 3-0 Win At USC Aiken

AIKEN, S. C.- The Armstrong Atlantic State University volleyball squad captured the 2012 Peach Belt Conference regular season title outright with a 3-0 victory over USC Aiken on Saturday afternoon in Aiken, S. C. Set scores were: 25-17, 25-13, 25-12.

Armstrong finishes the 2012 regular season with a 29-5 overall mark and a 13-1 Peach Belt record, finishing one game ahead of Flagler, who won on Saturday at Lander to finish at 12-2. Despite the loss, USC Aiken wraps up third place in the PBC standings at 7-7 overall and 18-12 overall.

Armstrong captures their third regular-season championship in the last five years, including their second in a row. The title is their fifth regular-season championship in school history.

The Pirates hit an outstanding. 556 with 15 kills and no errors in taking the first-set win. Armstrong then held the Pacers to a-. 101 hitting percentage over the final two sets to clinch the victory.

Senior Amanda Jones was the only player on either team to reach double figure kills as she led the Pirates with 11, hitting. 375. Senior Ashley Seal hit. 700 with eight kills to go with 21 assists and eight digs, while junior Jessica Santaniello added 13 digs.

USC Aiken’ s Danika Maggard led the Pacers with seven kills.

Armstrong Wins PBC Volleyball Tournament Title 3-2 over Flagler!

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.- The Armstrong Atlantic State University volleyball squad hit. 455 in the pivotal fifth set to capture the 2012 Peach Belt Conference volleyball tournament championship on Sunday with a 3-2 win over Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla. Set scores were: 15-25, 25- 18, 25-19, 21-25, 15-12.

The tournament win is the third for the Pirates( 32-5) in school history and the first since 2008. Armstrong had matched up with the Saints( 22-10) in each of the last three PBC Tournament finals but had fallen each time to Flagler before Sunday’ s victory. Armstrong also captured the PBC Tournament title in 2002 and, since Flagler joined the league in 2009, the Pirates had not beaten the Saints at Flagler Gymnasium in four tries.

Flagler hit. 258 in the first set and rode a raucous home crowd to the first-set win. Armstrong battled back in the second set, however, behind PBC Tournament MVP Brittany Wolf, who had seven kills with no errors in 10 attacks in the first two sets combined.

The Pirates took a two sets to one lead by hitting an unconscious. 500 in the third set with 17 kills and only three errors in 28 attacks. The Saints scored the first five points of the fourth set and rode that advantage to force a fifth set.

A back-and-forth final set saw the key play happen with the Pirates leading, 11-10. A dig by the Pirates went into the low-hanging rafters and Wolf played the ball over the net out of the ceiling to keep the point alive, then came back and notched the kill- her second straight kill and her 10th of the match- to put Armstrong up by two. Each team traded side outs until back-to-back kills by PBC Player of the Year Ashley Seal ended the match for the Pirates.

Wolf hit. 444 with 10 kills in the match and for the tournament had 31 kills with only four errors in 51 attacks for a. 529 hitting percentage, also adding six blocks in the championship match and 13 blocks overall.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Santaniello also added All-Tournament honors, registering 15 kills on the afternoon. Seal finished the day with a match-high 16 kills, 36 assists and seven digs while senior Amanda Jones added 14 kills and a. 303 hitting percentage. Freshman Abby Winsor notched a match-high 15 digs.

Flagler was led by PBC All-Tournament members Dianna Craine’ s 15 kills and Sophie Meyer added 14 kills, hitting. 417, while Amelia

First Team Manyi Ati, Montevallo Dianna Craine, Flagler Casey Gnann, Flagler Jessica Santaniello, Armstrong Ashley Seal, Armstrong Emilee Taylor, Flagler Brittany Wolf, Armstrong

Second Team Tarryn Angermeier, Lander Shannon Byers, USC Aiken Amanda Jones, Armstrong Jenna Keeler, Augusta State Samantha Lukralle, USC Aiken Rachel Stacy, Flagler Michelle Walker, Montevallo

co-Freshman of the Year Tarryn Angermeier, Lander Ashley Diedrich, USC Aiken

Libero / Defensive Specialist of the Year Casey Gnann, Flagler

Setter of the Year Ashley Seal, Armstrong

Player of the Year Ashley Seal, Armstrong

Coach of the Year Ashley Stathas, Lander

volleyball program. She is the first since Mandy Gerolstein garnered the honor in 2007. Leigh Pagan was an Academic All-American in 1982 and 1983.

The Academic All-American honor concludes an impressive career for Lukralle.

Lukralle currently boasts a 3.967 grade point average as a Nursing major. She was the 2012 recipient of the Peach Belt Conference Volleyball Elite 15 award, which is modeled on the NCAA’ s Elite 89 award and honors the student-athletes competing in Peach Belt Conference championship events with the highest cumulative GPA.

Lukralle( Lindenhurst, N. Y./ Lindenhurst HS) closed out her Pacer career with 2,160 career digs. The 2,160 digs is the most all-time in Pacer volleyball history. The dig total is good for fourth all-time in Peach Belt Conference history.

Lukralle ended her senior season in 2012 with 517 digs. The Pacer libero averaged a Peach Belt Conference second-best 5.68 digs per set. The Peach Belt Conference Specialist of the Week on Oct. 15, Lukralle claimed 20 or more digs in 14 matches this past season.

She was chosen the Peach Belt Conference Libero of the Year in 2010. A member of the 2010 Peach Belt Conference All-Tournament Team, Lukralle was also named All-Region in 2010.

Lukralle was selected to the Capital One Academic NCAA Division II Women’ s Volleyball District Three First-Team in 2011 and 2012. She was a three-time Peach Belt Conference All-Academic selection( 2010, 2011 and 2012).

To be eligible for Academic All-America ® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G. P. A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his / her current institution and be nominated by his / her sports information director.

Since the program’ s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 16,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.

Armstrong’ s Seal, Flagler’ s Gnann Named Volleyball All-Americans

Morgan added a match-high 43 assists.

Armstrong earns the league’ s automatic bid into the 2012 NCAA Division II Volleyball Championships. All selections will be announced tonight at 10:00 a. m. on an NCAA. com selection show.

USC Aiken’ s Lukralle Selected Capital One Academic All-American

TOWSON, Md. – University of South Carolina Aiken senior volleyball student-athlete Samantha Lukralle has been chosen to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America Division II Volleyball Team.

The Capital One Academic All-America program is selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America( CoSIDA).

Lukralle, who was a Second-Team selection, is USC Aiken’ s 11th CoSIDA Academic All-American. She is the second Academic All-American in as many years for the USC Aiken athletic department. Last year, current USC Aiken senior golfer Matt Atkins( Owensboro, Ky./ Henderson State) was chosen to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America Division II Men’ s At-Large Team.

Lukralle is the third Academic All-American for the USC Aiken

AUGUSTA, GA – Armstrong Atlantic State’ s Ashley Seal was named a thirdteam All-American by the AVCA while Flagler’ s Casey Gnann was named second-team All-America by Daktronics as both organizations released their teams. This is the second year in a row and second time since 2004 that the PBC has had multiple All-Americans.

For Armstrong, Brittany Wolf, Amanda Jones and Jessica Santaniello were named honorable mention by the American Volleyball Coaches Association( AVCA), as was Flagler’ s Dianna Craine.

Seal becomes only the second player in Armstrong volleyball history to earn a spot on an All-American Team, joining Brittany Wolf, who was a third-team honoree in 2011. The PBC Player and Setter of the Year, Seal hit. 288 with 282 kills, 1,166 assists and a school-record 97 service aces in 2012, the third-most service aces in a single season in NCAA Division II history in the current scoring format. The Orlando, Fla., native also earned All-PBC Tournament and All-NCAA Southeast Region Tournament honors while also being named the Southeast Region Player of the Year by Daktronics / CoSIDA.

Gnann is the only student-athlete from the Southeast Region to be on one of the three All-America teams by Daktronics.

Gnann was a Daktronics first-team All-Southeast Region selection last week and earned second-team honors last year. She was named All-Southeast Region by the AVCA last week. Gnann was selected as the