Mountaineers beat Ball State 3-1

From staff reports

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Freshman Cassie Engelgau recorded a career-high 42 digs, as the Appalachian State volleyball team closed out the Lady Topper Invitational with a 3-1 (24-30, 30-22, 30-18, 30-28) win over Ball State, Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Mountaineers improve to 7-6 overall with the win, and end the Western Kentucky-hosted tournament with a 1-2 record. Tennessee Tech and Western Kentucky play for the tournament championship this evening. Ball State falls to 2-7 on the season and 0-3 in the tournament.

After falling 30-24 in the first game, Appalachian came back to win games two and three handily by scores of 30-22 and 30-18. The Mountaineers had to claw back in game four to pull out a 30-28 victory.

Engelgau’s 42 digs ranks her ties her for fifth in the ASU record books for single-match digs. The libero has now recorded four 30-plus dig performances in her young career. Lorelle Rau (Oakland Park, Fla.) recorded a double-double for the Mountaineers with 46 assists and 11 digs.

Chrissy Finch tallied her second-consecutive double-double with 11 kills and 15 digs.  Dianna Thomas led the offensive attack with 16 kills.

Brittany Zahn earned a spot on the all-tournament team, compiling 11 kills on the day. Zahn has recorded double-digit kills in all 13 matches this season, and 19-consecutive dating back to last season.

The outside hitter has been named to three all-tournament teams in ASU’s four tournaments this season.

Amanda McCormick anchored the Ball State defense with 29 digs. Kelly Cochran and Angie Parrell added 21 and 10 digs, respectively. Cochran compiled a double-double with a team-high 11 kills. Parrell also chipped in a double-double with 30 assists.

Men’s soccer

CHARLOTTE — Appalachian State saw its perfect record come to an end as Charlotte defeated the Mountaineers 3-2 in double overtime Saturday.

Appalachian rallied back from an early 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead late in the second half. However, Charlotte rallied back to tie the match in the 89th minute before scoring the gamewinner in the 103rd minute.

Michael Rose put Charlotte (3-1-1) on the board in the third minute to give the 49ers and early 1-0 advantage. UNCC maintained the advantage through the end of the half and until the 79th minute when Appalachian’s Happy Hall tied the match off an assist from Sean Sassano.

The Mountaineers (5-1) took a 2-1 lead in the 88th minute with a goal from Arie Muniz courtesy of a cross from Sassano. Unfortunately, the Mountaineers could only hold onto the lead for 36 seconds before Charlotte’s Chris Arnold scored the equalizer to force overtime.

The two squads played the first overtime without a goal, but Charlotte only needed three minutes in the second overtime period for Michael Rose to score a breakaway goal to end the match.

The match was rather evenly played with ASU taking 16 shots to Charlotte’s 15. Charlotte was awarded five corner kicks while ASU produced three. Michael Walters and Muniz led Appalachian with three shots each.

Women’s soccer

Freshman Caroline Lowe scored a breakaway goal with 28 seconds left in the second overtime period to give Appalachian State a 2-1 victory over Longwood Sunday afternoon at the ASU Soccer Stadium.

After two first half goals produced a 1-1 tie, the two teams played nearly 75 minutes of scoreless soccer before Appalachian (3-4-0) ended the stalemate. Dana Murphy set up the gamewinner, kicking a long ball past the Longwood back line. Lowe remained onside, then blew past the defense to collect Murphy’s kick and drill a shot into the lower near corner of the goal for the win.

Appalachian had prior chances to end the match earlier as they controlled the majority of the match, outshooting Longwood 34-10 and holding a 15-5 advantage in shots on goal, but couldn’t seem to find the goal until Lowe put away her 12th shot of the afternoon.

Longwood scored early on a corner kick in the 11 minute that Sarah Fening put into goal off the kick from Tiffany Crane. Fening headed Crane’s corner, but missed on her initial attempt. However, she was able to recover and boot the ball into the center of the net.

Appalachian needed 25 minutes to get the goal back and tie the match. Jackie Hoffman scored the equalizer on a free kick she put into the upper near corner of the goal. Longwood staved off Appalachian in the second half to force the extra periods, both of which were controlled predominately by ASU. The Mountaineers outshot Longwood, 19-3, in the second half and two overtime periods.

Anne Whitmore was a big reason for the extended match as she stopped 13 shots in goal for the Lancers. Appalachian’s Emma White recorded four saves in the win. Seven different Mountaineers recorded shots including Casey Cleary (Wellington, Fla.) who had six shots on goal, but couldn’t find a way to get the ball past Whitmore.

ASU will return to action on Friday against South Carolina State at 3 p.m.

Field hockey

A rough weekend for the ASU field hockey team concluded Sunday, as the Apps fell to Davidson at home, 4-0. The loss drops ASU to 0-2 in NorPac conference play and 0-7 overall.

ASU put on a much better showing Sunday in front of the home fans in Kidd Brewer stadium than they did in yesterday’s match at Duke, where they were held without a shot. Sunday's match saw the Mountaineers hold shot-for-shot with the Wildcats with nine for each team. ASU also held their opponents to just eight shots on goal while firing six themselves.

The problems for the Mountaineers came mostly on penalty corners, where three of the four Wildcats goals were scored either directly or indirectly. While Appalachian earned five corners to Davidson's seven, the Mountaineers failed to convert on them.