PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Asbury University volleyball team began the 2019 River States Conference Championship with a great win in the quarterfinal round over East Division winner Point Park on Friday afternoon.

The Eagles won the match in four sets by scores of 25-21, 16-25, 25-18, 25-17. AU advances on to the River States Conference Championship Semifinals, which will be played tomorrow at 10 AM.

Asbury will play the winner of the IU-Kokomo/ IU East winner, who will play later on this afternoon. Asbury has advanced to the RSC semifinal round for the fourth straight season. 

For the match, AU produced 40 kills as a team and collected 14 blocks up at the net.

The Eagles finished the match with a hitting percentage of .219 and took advantage of 33 attack errors from the Pioneers.

Asbury bounced back from a slow early start in the opening set to knot things even at 13. AU broke ahead after winning the next six points, and a kill from Lizzy Rempel ended the set at 25-21.

PPU rolled in the second set as the Eagles trailed throughout the entirety of the set.

However, a strong performance in the third set put AU back out in front. The Eagles quickly jumped out ahead 9-1 and never looked back as they won the third frame handily at 25-18.

AU carried their momentum from the third set over into the fourth as the Eagles recorded 13 kills in the final set of play. Senior Julia Thompson posted the match-winning kill at the net to seal the victory for Asbury.
 
AU Stat Leaders
Kills        Hailey Jordan (13), Julia Thompson (8), Lizzy Rempel (6)
Aces      Hailey Jordan (2), Taegan Montgomery (2), Kandace Eligio (1)
Blocks   Bethany Fye (6), Bethany Laue (4), Shelby Larson (3)
Assists   Taegan Montgomery (15), Hailey Jordan (14), Jessie Sandefur (2)
Digs       Jessie Sandefur (17), Charis Wieschhaus (13), Taegan Montgomery (5)