It was a battle tonight at Hay Fieldhouse! Greenville came to town ranked 3rd in SLIAC with Principia biting at their heels in the #4 spot. Greenville led Principia in non-SLIAC statistics in every category before tonight. Tonight every single game was filled with lead changes and momentum spurts. Game one tied up at 18-18 and continued back and forth with Principia taking the win with a narrow 25-23 margin. Game two was more of the same. The game was tied 6-6, 10-10, 14-14, before Greenville found some success in the middle running quicks against Principia. Even though Principia went down 14-20, they dug in their heels and ended up losing a much closer 22-25. Game three was also tied 5-5, 10-10, 16-16 before Greenville had a run hitting on the right side to eek out another close one 25-23 over Principia. Even though momentum was in Greenville's favor, Principia turned up their competitive juices, and made some lineup adjustments to put in a bigger block to try to slow Greenville's offense. Principia was down 5-10, 10-15, and then made some big moves accelerating into their hits better than earlier in the evening. Principia caught up to 20-20 and then had great surge to win 25-22 and force a 5th and deciding set. Principia was in control going up 8-4 before the court change. The momentum slipped back and forth between the two teams and Greenville's middles made the difference as they put down one more ball to seal the deal with a 15-13 game five victory.
Principia outswung Greenville posting a .162 hitting efficiency compared to Greenville's .124. Principia outserved Greenville with 13 aces compared to Greenville's 6, and both teams blocked 8 balls. Overall, Greenville showed a more diversified offense, but Principia didin't quite have the backcourt ball control to spread their offense out, and in the end that was the difference.
Principia travels to Eureka College on Saturday to play at 12:00 noon. The Panthers are now 7-5.
