BOWLING GREEN – UPIKE could find the magic necessary to pull off the upset of the season on Thursday, losing to No. 6 Lindsey Wilson in straight sets, 3-0 (25-12, 25-14, 25-13).
The Bears hung around early in the first set, trailing only 9-8, but then the Blue Raiders asserted its dominance by rattling off 10 straight points to cast UPIKE aside. Lindsey Wilson had a .361 attack percentage in the first set compared to UPIKE’s .103 mark.
Yet, things got statistically worse offensively for the Bears in the second set, hitting -.077 in the middle set; and a trio of small runs in the third set secured the victory for the Blue Raiders.
Lindsey Wilson dominated every stat column in the match, including a 51-16 difference in total kills and 54 digs to UPIKE’s 39.
UPIKE finishes the season at 10-25 overall and winless in conference play.
Eight UPIKE volleyball
student-athletes named
Academic All-Conference
BOWLING GREEN – A total of eight UPIKE volleyball student-athletes were named to the Mid-South Academic All-Conference team on Thursday night.
Noelani Simpson, Brittany Reels, Brooke Pickler, Autumn Meade, Cassie Jones, Amanda Gooding, Mikayla Frye, and Emme Barker all received the honor. This year marks the most Academic All-Conference players that UPIKE has had in the history of its tenure in the Mid-South Conference
In order to be eligible for the Mid-South’s academic award, student-athletes had to be in at least their third semester of higher education and hold a GPA of 3.25 or higher.
Simpson named first team
All Mid-South Conference
BOWLING GREEN – After being the catalyst for the UPIKE volleyball offense all season, Noelani Simpson was honored by her peers late Wednesday night by being named to the Mid-South’s All-Conference First Team.
Simpson is the first Pikeville volleyball player to be named to the First Team since Vicki Hall and Sarah Meyer in 2007.
Her 303 kills this season were tied for the eighth most in the Mid-South despite not playing in eight matches because of injuries. The Fontana, Calif. native’s 3.4 kills per set is the third highest mark in the conference. She also had 29 service aces and 258 digs this season.
Simpson was named to the Mid-South Second Team All-Conference last season and is the first Bear to receive a postseason honor in back-to-back seasons since Kristal Daniels and Hillary Mussman both were named in 2007 and 2008.
(Source: UPIKE Sports Information Office)