Box Score Charlotte, N.C.- The Queens University of Charlotte volleyball team (13-13, 11-9 SAC) surpassed the No. 2 Southeast regionally ranked Bulldogs of Wingate University (24-3, 18-2 SAC) on Tuesday, November 10, 2015, in five sets going 25-18, 17-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-9. The win would break a 17 match winning streak for Wingate and would be the first time since 1999 that the Royals have topped the Bulldogs.
Starting strong, Queens broke out to an 8-4 lead to force a Wingate timeout. The momentum would not halt for the Royals as the Bulldogs found themselves burning their second timeout trailing 15-6. A late 4-0 run managed to tighten the gap to 20-16, but Queens found their drive to take three straight points for the set with
Rebecca Cochran closing the game.
The second set saw Queens using an early timeout to refocus after five unanswered points put Wingate in the lead with a 9-6 score. Despite hits from the Royals, Wingate held their win seeing their own 3-0 run for the set.
Wingate launched out early in the third set taking five unanswered for a 9-4 lead. However, strong play by Queens put the team in the driver's seat as they tied the set at 14-14.
Annika Jones had back-to-back service aces to force Wingate to call timeout trailing by two points (17-15). One last timeout would be called by Queens as Wingate pulled within one point at 23-22, but an error and a hit from
Jessica Raines gave the Royals the go-ahead set.
Queens struggled to find its rhythm in the fourth set as Wingate quickly took an 18-10 lead off an 11-1 run. The Royals made up some ground but the match would head into five sets.
Kills by Rains and
Sydney Kunz, and a block from
Alex Thompson and Cochran empowered the Royals as the team found a new spark of energy.
Meredith Jones slammed one to the ground to bring the game to an 8-5 Queens score, as the two teams switched sides. Queens found their win off an attacking error from the Wingate side.
M. Jones and Raines rallied to take 11 kills apiece in the match, leading the Royals offense. Kunz found three service aces to partner with her 18 assists while A. Jones mirrored on service aces with three and took second on the team in assists with 10.
Megan Mancini would have 10 digs to place just nine shy of tying the second most in Queens' history (1086) for the stat line.
Shelly Stumpff had 21 kills for the night, just shy of half the Bulldogs' total kills at 55. Stumpff would also lead the team in digs finding 16. Megan Schildmeyer led the team in assists, tallying 31.
The Royals will finish out the regular season on the road as the team travels to Brevard on Friday. Queens will face the Tornados at 7 p.m., before heading to Lenoir-Rhyne the next day for the regular season closer.
