Furman tops College of Charleston 3-1 for the final spot in the champioship

CHARLESTON, SC -- The Southern Conference volleyball semifinals concluded this afternoon with Furman topping College of Charleston 3-1 (17-15, 15-9,14-16, 15-9).

Furman (18-16) advances to the championship match on Sunday. Furman took a commanding 6-1 lead in the first game before going ahead 11-4. CofC battled back to tie the match at 12 apiece before College of Charleston pulled ahead 14-12. The Lady Paladins held off the Cougar offensive and tied the match at 14-14. The two teams exchanged points but Furman came out on top 17-15 to take game one.

The two teams battled throughout game two with Furman taking a 5-3 lead and following with four straight points. The Cougars came back to cut the lead to two before Furman came up with another three points to take the score to 12-7. Furman held on to the lead and fought off the Cougars to take game two 15-9.

Furman came out strong in game three, scoring six unanswered points before the Cougars scored to set the game at 5-1. Furman took a 9-3 lead but CofC battled back to 9-6 before the Lady Paladins went up 13-6. College of Charleston won three straight points before the match went into an exchange of sideouts. The Cougars finally broke the cycle with four more unanswered points to tie the game at 13. The two teams exchanged points and after seven sideouts, CofC took game four 16-14 to set the match at 2-1 Furman.

College of Charleston took an early lead in game four at 4-1 but the Lady Paladins came back to even the score. The two exchanged points until the Paladins went up 10-8. Furman took a 12-9 lead and held on to win game four 15-9 and the match 3-1. Abby Simon led the Lady Paladins, hitting .391 with 21 kills and 11 digs while Shawn Beckham added 14 kills and 13 digs.

Alyson Van Cleave tallied 23 kills and 15 digs, hitting .322, while Alisa Long recorded 17 kills and hit .385. College of Charleston finishes the season with a 15-17 record. Furman faces top-seeded Davidson in the championship match on Sunday at 4:00pm.

Davidson survived Western Carolina 3-2 earlier in the day. The championship match will be televised live on Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast and live on the internet at www.soconsports.com.