The Lyon College Pipers continued their
winning ways this season, going 2-0 on the first day of
the Belhaven College Tournament, with wins over NCAA
Division II West Alabama and the host Blazers, Friday at
Jackson, Miss.
Lyon’s wins on Friday pushed the team’s
record to an unblemished 3-0 this season.
“We had our ups and downs on the day,”
said Lyon College volleyball head coach Justin Dee, “but
we had the desire to get it done. Hopefully we can do
that tomorrow, too, against Rhodes College and Loyola.”
The Pipers opened the tourney with a 3-1
pasting of West Alabama – 30-23, 30-23, 21-30, 30-27 –
led by 17 kills, 12 digs, 5 aces and 3 blocks from
Bosnian outside hitter Daria Paunovic.
Freshman middle blocker Katie Beineke
smashed 10 kills, libero Ann Sullivan added 31 digs and
middle blocker Alyson Boone picked up 8 kills and three
blocks.
In match two, Lyon battled a raucous
Belhaven home crowd and an even tougher Blazer squad to
a 3-2 victorious decision (30-24, 30-21, 28-30, 30-21,
15-12).
"Our girls responded well in a rowdy
environment,” said Dee. “I was really impressed with the
atmosphere at Belhaven. I was more impressed with how we
played in that environment.”
Paunovic, Sullivan and Beineke keyed
another strong team effort, each contributing to a
different column in the stat book, thus contributing to
the Pipers’ third consecutive victory to open the
season.
Paunovic had 13 kills and 1.5 blocks,
Beineke had 11 kills and 2.5 blocks while Sullivan
picked up 43 digs and 3 aces.
Freshman outside hitter Lauren
Castleberry added 21 digs for the Pipers.
