GREENSBORO, N.C. – Finally making their season debut on Jack Jenson Court in the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse, the Guilford College volleyball team (3-7, 1-0 ODAC) felt right at home, dominating by withholding Hollins University (1-7, 0-1 ODAC) to the lowest hitting percentage against on record to claim an Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) opening victory, 3-0 (25-7, 25-11, 25-22) on Wednesday night.
Restricting HU to hit -.154 on the night, it is the lowest mark allowed by the Quakers since game-by-game data is available online, dating back to 2002, but that was just the start of the history. The opening set score of 25-7 is the most-lobsided tallies GC has recorded since taking the second set over Mid-Atlantic Christian University, 25-5 on October 21, 2023, and the most one-sided set score in a conference match since handling Eastern Mennonite University by a tally of 25-4 in the third set all the way back on October 24, 2009.
The Quakers swung well themselves on the night, hitting .257, their second-best mark of the year, and matching a season-high with 12 service aces while allowing a season-low four aces against. Hollins did win at the net defensively with a 6-2 advantage on the block, but it did not much matter with the superior serving and swinging by Guilford.
GC had plenty of contributors as
Olivia Thorne (Huntersville, N.C.) and
Jayanna Spurgeon (Duncan, S.C.) finished even for the team-lead with six kills apiece. Thorne also paced the Quakers in receptions with seven errorless chances and Spurgeon swung .750 on just eight attacks while assisting on both Guilford blocks.
Jillian Mapes (Hodges, S.C.) led the team with a dozen helpers and added three service aces, even with both
Chloe Lynch (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and
Karly Peacock (Honolulu, Hawaii) for the match-high. Lynch and
Olivia Roberts (Claremont, Calif.) finished as their best defenders with five digs each.
Cassidy Henderson led Hollins in kills with five, swinging just .000, although that actually ended up being the second-best mark recorded by any HU player. Evelyn Harris led distributing duties with five assists and Meredith Crawley led all players in digs with six.
Guilford put the opening set away immediately with Mapes at the service line.
Chrisbel Alcántara (San Juan, Puerto Rico) finished a kill then a Mapes ace, an error, a Thorne kill, two kills from Alcántara, two errors, another Mapes ace, a
Haley Pasour (Winterville, N.C.) kill, and two more errors constituted a 12-0 advantage before Hollins even got on the scoreboard via a Mapes service error. Well on their way, GC permitted consecutive points just once in the set while out-swinging their guests .476 to -.292 in the most lobsided ODAC set they have played in in 17 years, 25-7.
Hollins competed a little better in the second, but after trading the first-two points, the Quakers went on an 8-2 span and later in the set they rattled off another 5-0 spurt on the back of a trio of Lynch aces to pull away. HU was still well-below hitting a positive rate at -.333 but Guilford fell back to earth some with a .217 mark on their way to another dominant set win, 25-11.
The final set was the most-competitive of the night, although GC unloaded their bench along the way. Tied at two-all through four rallies, the hosts rattled off three-straight points to take a lead they never relinquish. The set was back-and-forth, but Guilford was always in control and eventually extended their lead to 24-18 and while Hollins' best stretch of the evening ensued, winning four-straight points, all it did was delay things as the Quakers finished off the sweep with a 25-22 set win.
Guilford heads to Charlotte for a tri-match next on Friday, September 18. They play the hosting Johnson & Wales University-Charlotte at 11:00 AM before battling Regent University at 1:00 PM.
#GoQuakes
