Banner Elk, NC--This Friday and Saturday the Bobcats hosted the
Lees-McRae Classic in Williams Gymnasium in men's volleyball
action. The five match classic saw Warner Southern (Lake Wales,
FL), Missouri Baptist (St. Louis, MO) and King College (Bristol,
TN), along with host school Lees-McRae, converging on the campus to
compete. Missouri Baptist swept their three matches 3-0, Warner
Southern finished 2-1, while both LMC and King College were 0-2 for
the weekend.
FRIDAY
Match 1
Missouri Baptist 3 vs. Warner Southern 0
30-20/30-27/30-21
Match 2
LMC 0 vs. Missouri Baptist 3
28-30/ 13-30/26-30
Match 3
Warner Southern 3 vs. King 0
30-28/ 30-22/ 27-30/ 30-24
SATURDAY
Match 4
Missouri Baptist 3 vs. King0
30-23/ 30-24/ 30-19
Match 5
LMC 2 vs. Warner Southern 3
22-30/ 30-27/ 27-30/ 32-30/ 16-18
Lees-McRae Match Summaries
LMC 0 vs. Missouri Baptist 3
28-30/ 13-30/26-30
The Bobcats started out strong in their first match of the
Lees-McRae Classic Friday evening against the 17-7 Spartans,
battling to the end but fell short in the 30-28 contest. The
Spartans took total control of game two, knocking the Bobcats out
30-13. Lees-McRae clawed their way back into contention of winging
game three but were unable to convert key points and dropped the
game 30-26 and giving the Spartans the sweep.
Stat leaders for the Bobcats were Juan Ramirez (Miami, FL) with
24 assist, Shane Holderby (Virginia Beach, VA) with 15 kills, eight
assists and five digs, and Robert Ritchie (Hollywood, FL) with five
digs, one block solo and three block assists. Ryan Black
(Escondido, CA) contributed two block solos and two block assists
while Kyle Gauger (Penfield, NY) added six kills.
Coach Petrik commented, "Obviously this was a tough match for
us. We had a hard week with injuries and had to put some guys in
different positions. Missouri Baptist is a physical team and they
were just more consistent than we were."
LMC 2 vs. Warner Southern 3
22-30/ 30-27/ 27-30/ 32-30/ 16-18
The Bobcats competed throughout this five game match, but the
Royals took advantage of weaknesses shown by the host team. In
game one the Royals walked away with a 30-22 victory, their biggest
win of the tight match. The Bobcats responded by taking game two
by a score of 30-27, then Warner Southern answered back, taking a
2-1 match lead with a 30-27 game three win. Games four and five
both went to extra points, with the Bobcats evening the match score
with a 32-30 win in the fourth only to fall 16-18 to the Royals in
the fifth despite the fact that the Bobcats put up a season high 23
total team blocks for the entire match.
Leading the way for the Bobcats was junior Ryan Black with 16
kills (.500 hitting percentage). Ritchie added 12 kills, four block
solos and three block assists while Gauger had 11 kills and ten
digs in the effort. Teammates Justy Tevid (Barrigada, Guam) and
Ramirez dug up 14 apiece with Ramirez adding 19 assists.
"Obviously this was a hard-fought match. There were some tight
calls at the end but if we had taken care of business earlier in
the match, it would not have had to go to five. Give both teams
credit, any time you go into "overtime" in the 5th game, there is
some good volleyball going on," added Coach Petrik after the
game.
With the losses the Bobcats close out season with a final record
of 6-15.
Pictured: Juan Ramirez
