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24
Volleyball
Flagler Wins Epic PBC Volleyball Championship
Match 3-2 over Armstrong State
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – Sara Davis recorded a career-high 29 kills,
hit .300 and added five total blocks to earn tournament most
valuable player honors and help top seed Flagler College to a 3-2
(17-25, 25-19, 25-13, 24-26, 15-13) win over No. 3 seed Arm-
strong State University in a Peach Belt Conference Tournament
championship match Sunday afternoon at the Centennial Center.
Flagler won its 12th match in a row to improve to 23-6 on the
season. The Saints won its fifth conference tournament title as
they defend their 2015 crown. This is the fourth time Flagler has
been, or shared, the regular season title and won the tournament
champion (2009-2010-2011). Armstrong State finishes the sea-
son with a 25-7 record and will more than likely receive one of the
five at-large berths to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.
Kayla Norelli broke Flagler’s single match digs record with 45
this afternoon. Casey Gnann held the record with 41 at Augusta
State University on Nov. 2, 2012.
Taja Valmyr recorded 16 kills and a season-high 22 digs for her
eighth double-double of the season for the Saints. Both Norelli
and Valmyr were selected to the all-tournament team. Ashley
Cheewah added eight kills and seven total blocks while Megan
Hooks contributed eight kills and four total blocks. Sarah Schark
and Rachel Porada each collected 13 digs. Tara Savisky tied her
career-high with 60 assists.
Flagler’s 114 digs in a match were its most this season.
Raegen Grooms led Armstrong State with 13 kills and 18 digs
which helped her earn a place on the all-tournament team. Kim
Brody and Autumn Mayo recorded 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Iva
Scepanovic collected 26 digs while Carley Eiken recorded a dou-
ble-double with 39 assists and 15 digs to go along with five total
block and earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
The match was back and forth, but none more so than in the last
two sets. In all, there were 27 ties and nine lead changes, but there
were 16 ties and seven lead changes alone in the final two sets.
The Pirates held a 22-20 lead in the fourth set until a kill by
Davis and a hitting error by Grooms tied the score at 22-all. Valmyr
and Davis recorded consecutive kills to extend Flagler’s run to 4-0
and a 24-22 lead. Armstrong broke the first match point with a kill
by Grooms, and then Grooms added another to tie the score at 24.
Consecutive hitting errors by Valmyr, the last was a double-block by
Rachel Thompson and Eiken, gave the set and the momentum to
Armstrong.
In the fifth set, with the score tied at 13, Flagler called a timeout.
The resulting plays from that timeout was a kill by Valmyr to set up
match point and then Davis spiked home the final point to win the
match.
In Flagler’s eight seasons in the PBC, it has won five tournament
2016-17