LEBANON, Tenn. -- Union
captured its second victory in a row against the Lyon
College Pipers in the TranSouth Tournament, winning 3-0
in the quarterfinals on Saturday at the Dallas Floyd
Recreation Center at Cumberland University.
Union's Lady Bulldogs, the No. 4 seed, swept the Pipers
(19-13), the No. 5 seed, for the second straight time in
the tourney -- 30-27, 30-23 and 30-23 -- to advance to
the semifinals. Before the tournament began, Union had
not beaten Lyon, losing twice during the regular-season
TranSouth Conference double round-robin schedule.
Lauren Castleberry led the Pipers in kills for the
second consecutive contest, notching 11 kills to go with
14 digs. Outside hitter Daria Paunovic added nine kills
and senior Alyson Boone had eight. Setter Julie Arnold
led the Pipers in assists with 18 and teammate Jessica
Sylvester had 12. Ann Sullivan was the team-leader in
digs with 16.
Lyon, sits at 19-13 overall and is currently ranked
ninth in Region XI. The Pipers have to wait until
Monday, when the final regional rankings are released,
to see if it will qualify for the regional tournament.
Only the top six teams from the region will qualify, but
Trevecca Nazarene (ranked 5th in the region) and Lambuth
(7th) were defeated before Lyon in the Conference
Tournament. Whether the quarterfinalist performance was
good enough to get Lyon into the regional is anyone's
guess, according to Pipers' head coach Justin Dee.
"We're not sure," said Dee of his team's regional fate,
"we had a few teams lose before us in the conference
tournament -- Lambuth and Trevecca, but that might not
get us in. I guess we'll just have to wait until Monday
to find out."
