GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG volleyball team won its third-straight match Friday evening, recording a sweep (25-16, 25-20, 25-19) of East Tennessee State inside Fleming Gymnasium to kick off the Homecoming festivities on campus. The victory avenged a 3-1 setback to the Bucs in Johnson City a couple of weeks ago and gave the Spartans a season series split with ETSU.

It was a pivotal win for UNCG (15-9, 7-4 SoCon) as the Buccaneers (11-15, 5-5 SoCon) entered the match just one half game back of the Spartans for third place in the league standings. With the victory, UNCG now has a 1.5 match lead over ETSU in the standings and also holds the tiebreaker due to its 3-0 win at Samford last weekend.

The Spartans tallied more kills (45-30), assists (41-28), digs (57-43) and blocks (4.0-3.5) in the match while the Bucs only had the advantage in service aces 5-3. ETSU entered the contest as the top blocking team in the league but was held in check by UNCG in that regard. The Blue and Gold hit .287 (45k/14e/108ta) and limited the visitors to .128 (30k/16e/109ta) efficiency.

The reigning SoCon Freshman of the Week, outside hitter Ashley Muench, led UNCG with 10 kills while sophomore outside hitter Jessica Brezwyn and senior middle hitter Kelsey Sidney checked in with nine. Sophomore setter Sara Hohman recorded her 14^th double-double overall and seventh in conference play with 35 assists and 13 digs. Muench also notched a double-double as she added 13 digs to her 10 kills. Redshirt junior middle hitter Julia Westerbur was error free offensively, tallying eight kills on 19 attempts to end up at .421. She is the current SoCon leader in hitting percentage.

UNCG came out on fire in the first set as an attacking error by Bethany Gesell made the score 8-2 in favor of the Spartans. ETSU was forced to call a timeout trailing 13-6 in an attempt to stop the Blue and Gold's momentum but it would not work. A kill by Sidney stretched the Spartan lead to 17-8 and the Bucs would not threaten again. Another attacking error by Gesell ended the stanza with UNCG on top 25-16.

The second set was much more competitive early on as a service ace by Kristen Favre forced the Spartans to use a timeout trailing 10-7. Unfazed, UNCG rode the serving of sophomore defensive specialist Mackenzie Moughon to knot the score at 11. The teams battled back and forth before, with the score tied at 16, a kill by Westerbur sparked a 3-0 run to afford the Spartans a 19-16 advantage. ETSU attempted the rally, pulling within 21-20 on a kill by Meredith Hardy, but UNCG buckled down and won the final four points of the set to head into intermission with a two sets to none lead.

East Tennessee State raced out to a 3-0 edge to begin the third frame but two kills by Westerbur and kill from Brezwyn quickly deadlocked the score at three. A kill by Sidney capped a 10-6 run that gave UNCG some breathing room at 13-10 but the Bucs stayed close and forced the Spartans to take a timeout after drawing within 17-15. An attacking error by Muench then cut the UNCG lead to one. However, Hardy committed a service error on the next rally. The Spartans were able to put the match away with a 4-2 run that made the score 22-18. An error by Gesell pushed the advantage to 23-18 before a kill by Brezwyn sealed the set 25-19 and clinched the sweep.

UNCG faces another tough test tomorrow, hosting current SoCon second place Furman to continue the Homecoming celebration. First serve is slated for 5 p.m.

Follow the UNCG volleyball team all season by logging on to www.uncgspartans.com and following the Spartans' official Twitter accounts @UNCGVB and @uncgsports.