ANDERSON TROJANS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

WINGATE, N.C. – After falling behind by two sets in their NCAA Southeast Region Quarterfinal matchup with USC Aiken, the Anderson University (26-5) volleyball team stormed back in the final three sets to take the 3-2 victory over the Pacers.

This marks just the second win in the all-time series against USC Aiken with their last win over the Pacers coming in 2010. This is also the third time that the Trojans have proven victorious in Cuddy Arena, though both wins came against neutral site teams.

"I think the message after set one was the same after set two and is was basically this isn't who we are," said head coach Todd Hay. "After we got down 0-2, we went back to the beginning of the season when we went down 0-2 and came back and won, we've been in some tough five setters this season."

Senior Tabitha Wheeler (Greenville, S.C.) paced the Trojans with 16 kills on the evening while fellow senior Rylie Sargent (Greer, S.C.) was able to record 15 in the contest. Senior Meg Sansbury (Seneca, S.C.) also exceeded double digits as she was able to tally 13 in the match. Senior Jenna Long (Clearwater, Fla.) tallied 49 assists and graduate Lindsay McCurley (Simpsonville, S.C.) posted a team-high 29 digs.

Though the Trojans were able to control the contest in the early goings of the first set, the Pacers took over at the halfway and though Anderson was able to keep the match to within three at 20-17, the Pacers finished out the set with five straight points.

The second set was more clear cut with the Pacers gaining their advantage from the first serve and carrying it throughout the set. Though Anderson was able to hit for a higher clip in the second set than the first, they were unable to chip into the Pacers advantage enough as USC Aiken took the 2-0 lead with a 25-21 set win.

"We were able take a deep breath and relax a bit an our passing was able to come back around and when you look at the stats our hitting percentage just got better every set. I felt like we were more effective after set two. Of course serving and passing is key and once we got those going everything came together"

The third set continued the trend of an improve hitting percentage for the Trojans and it showed not only on the stat sheet but on the scoreboard as well as they were able to battle back-and-forth with the Pacers until they were able to take over the lead after the final tie of the set at 15. Leading by two at 19-17, the Trojans were able to outscore the Pacers by a 6-1 clip over the final stretch to take the 25-18 win.

Anderson continued to improve upon their hitting percentage in the fourth set taking the first three points of the set and further extending their lead out to five at 9-4. They continued to drop the hammer throughout the remainder of the set, leading by as much as seven on multiple occasions before finishing out the set with a nine-point advantage at 25-19 to force a decisive fifth set.

The Pacers controlled the early goings of the fifth set, forcing the side change with a four-point advantage at 8-4. They continued to try and put the match away as they furthered their advantage out to six at 11-5, but the Trojans were not going to go away quietly as a pair of kills sandwiched around five-straight attacking errors for USC Aiken swung the lead back to the Trojans side of the scoreboard at 12-11. The two teams ended up tied at 15, and it was the two lead attackers for the Trojans in Sargent and Wheeler who were able to record the final two kills of the match to give Anderson the 17-15 win.

The Trojans now turn their attention to the Bulldogs of Wingate University as the look towards a 7:30 p.m. match-up in the Southeast Region Semifinals.

Senior Tabitha Wheeler on her 16 kill performance -

"My focus was just coming in a swinging hard, we've kind been working on that all four years, but really this past week I realized that this could really be the last week so I just need to go out and swing as hard as I can. Once our passes got back together and were able to get the set tempo back together it became a lot easier from there."

Senior Linsday McCurley on her senior leadership –

"I think we decided after we were down two sets that this is not how we wanted to end our season and the only thing we could do was different than what we were doing. Coach Hay always talks about the game being played to three, and we were only down 2-0 to that so that kept us steady and calm and caused our play to get better so that really helped us get more confident on our side of the court.