PBC Tournament - Armstrong Atlantic State Sweeps Their Way to Championship Game

AIKEN, S.C. – The third-seeded Armstrong Atlantic State Pirates swept sixth-seeded Lander 3-0 in the semifinals of the 2009 PBC Tournament in Aiken on Saturday night, part of the PBC-GEICO Championship Series. With that win, the 13th in AASU’s last 14 matches, the Pirates advance to the championship game on Sunday at 2:00 where they will face top-seeded Flagler. Set scores were 25-17, 25-22 and 25-18.

The Pirates hit .244 as a team while holding Lander to .092. AASU also out-dug the best digging team in the league with a 69-61 edge. Marina Marinova led the Pirates with 10 kills while Amy Birkmeier had nine kills while hitting .316. Kristin Standhardinger added six kills, 36 assists and 11 digs while Kathrin Standhardinger had eight kills while hitting .421.

The Pirates used late runs in the first two sets to open up a lead. Tied at 13 in the first, AASU outscored the Bearcats 12-4 to close out the set, including scoring the final five points in a row with the set winner coming on a service ace by Ashley Ferry.

The second set was nearly identical but Lander did not allow the Pirates to pull away so easily. A ball handling error, one of six called on both teams in the match, pulled Lander within one at 16-15. AASU scored four of the next five points including a pair of kills from Kristin Standhardinger to lead 20-16. AASU was up 23-18 with Lander ran off four points in a row, three of them coming from Pirate attack errors. A rare delay-of-game penalty against Lander gave AASU a 24th point, but Lander answered with two more points to pull to 24-22 before Armstrong won the set on a Michele Remlinger kill.

The Pirates left no doubt in the third set as they pulled away early an ran out to a 15-7 lead thanks to a 7-2 run keyed by kills from Marinov and Brendyce Budd. Lander had their lowest attack percentage of the match in the third, hitting -.020 with 11 attack errors.

Lindsey Everhart led the Bearcats with 12 kills, hitting .393. Candace LaRocca had 24 assists and 12 digs while Ashley Ferry led the team with 16 digs.

Armstrong Atlantic State will get the chance to defend their PBC Tournament championship on Sunday. Sunday’s championship game appearance with be AASU’s 11th in the last 12 years. The winner of the championship game receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

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