The Phoenix dominated Wofford in almost every category in Saturday night’s volleyball game, except for blocking.

The excellent display of offense and defense led them to a 3-0 sweep against the Terriers, but the front-line defense still needs work.

The team has been mainly focusing on blocking in this week’s practices.

“I think that’s going to be one of the bigger keys that we need to do in order to be successful in the SoCon,” assistant coach Hal Clifton said. “There’s a lot of big hitters, and if we don’t stop them with our first line of defense, it’s going to be a long match.”

The Phoenix hosts Appalachian State on Friday at 7 p.m. and Davidson on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The Phoenix will be tested in both matches, so Clifton knows that the Phoenix must stick to its game plan if its going to be successful not only for the weekend, but for the year.

“We’re a fairly young team in a couple of positions,” Clifton said. “So we try to talk about every ball being a chance to get better, whether it’s in practice or in a match.

“Each ball that comes over the net, we’ve got to make a better play, a cleaner contact. So it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the net, we have to make sure that we get better on each ball, each touch, and we try to stay focus that way.”

Elon advanced to a 3-2 conference record, 8-10 overall after the win.

Phoenix Mandy Wilson had a game-high 14 kills and .444 hitting percentage. Wilson had help from senior Emily Lucci and freshman Lauren Copenhagen, who each posted 10 kills.

“We just tried to hone in on our strengths,” Wilson said. “Once we had weaknesses, we just tried to hone those out and try to keep on attacking in those areas.”

Elon tallied 51 kills with a .272 hitting percentage, while Wofford recorded 37 kills with a low hitting percentage of .162.

Reporter: Craig Filazzola - 10/03/07