Eagles volleyball, women's soccer fall

From staff reports

Winthrop's volleyball team lost its first home match of the season as the UNC Asheville Bulldogs defeated the Eagles in four sets (25-14, 18-25, 16-25 and 22-25) on Friday at the Winthrop Coliseum.

The Eagles (13-7 overall, 5-2 Big South) compiled 54 kills, 62 digs, four aces and a .216 team hitting percentage.

Junior Sara Felts led the offense with 12 kills and a .200 hitting performance. Junior Ginnie Talley was the top defensive contributor with 12 digs.

“Asheville came to defend the number-one seed in the conference,” Eagles coach Sally Polhamus said. “We came out strong playing our game, but their defense and serving took us out of our game. This was a good learning experience for us to no play someone else's game but to establish ours.”

UNC Asheville had 50 kills, 66 digs, 12 block assists and a .265 hitting percentage. Kelsey Benorden led the offense with 15 kills and a .289 hitting performance.

The Eagles will be back in action at 2 p.m. today as they host Gardner-Webb in a Big South matchup at Winthrop Coliseum.

WOMEN'S SOCCER — In Radford, Va., Maryellen Derenda's goal two minutes into the first overtime period gave the Radford Highlanders a 2-1 victory over the Winthrop Eagles in Big South Conference action.

Derenda scored the goal after her initial shot deep inside the 18-yard box was blocked by the Lady Eagles, but she got the rebound and placed her shot past goalkeeper Kelsy Weavil for the game-winner.

Winthrop dropped to 3-8-2 overall and 0-3-1 in conference play, while the Highlanders improve to 7-7, 4-1.

“We played well against Radford,” head coach Melissa Heinz said. “They (Radford) are a great team. We showed up to play tonight; unfortunately, being a young team is keeping us from winning these tight games.”

After playing to a scoreless tie in the first half, the Lady Eagles struck first in the 67th minute on Kylie Long's first career goal as an Eagle. Long created the opportunity as she took the ball a majority of the field, made some great moves through the defense and put her shot from the far side just under the top crossbar from 10-yards out.

Radford tied the game in the 80th minute courtesy of a goal by SharDavia Bell after Jill Boyer lofted a long pass that bounced in front of Weavil and over her head to the feet of Bell, who was waiting in front of the goal to tap it in.

“This loss is a hard one to swallow, especially with how well we are playing,” Heinz said. “I'm proud of the players tonight.”

The Highlanders outshot Winthrop 13-7 and also held a 7-3 advantage in shots on-goal. The Lady Eagles led in corner kicks 5-3.

Jessica Hausfeld led the Lady Eagles with two shots, while five different players had one shot each. Long had the lone shot on-target. Weavil finished the match with five saves.

Winthrop will be back in action Sunday as it travels to Lexington, Va., to face VMI at 1 p.m.